I'll stand by my friends
by earlyable
Summary: Melody Song is just a normal, genius, eleven-year-old witch... right? Wrong. That's what her parents think. That's what her sister thinks. That's what her friends think. That's even what she thinks. Melody is about to learn where she really comes from, what her dreams are about, why she can read people's minds and what on Earth the word Gallifrey means!
1. First Year 1

**A/N: Here's the first chapter of the prequel to **_**come away, O human child**_**. I've got the first two chapters written and typed up and the third chapter written and half typed up. I don't know how long it'll take for the third chapter to be done so the second chapter will be posted on the 1st of May. I know that there's a lot of seemingly unimportant things in here (such as the purchasing of a trunk and the trip to Gringotts) but they are all explained later and most of it will become relevant.**

**As in **_**come away, O human child**_** any required knowledge of Doctor Who will be mentioned either in the story or in the chapter notes.**

**I'd also like to thank the amazing PeppermintAmortentia for the beautiful story cover.**

**Unbeta'd so this will probably be updated with the beta'd version in a couple of weeks.**

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**UPDATE: This has now been edited by yours truly. It was a pretty extensive process (if I do say so myself) however there may still be some mistakes. Let me know if you find anything.**

* * *

_1__0__th__ July_

The doorbell rang out loudly through the front hallway of the Parades house.

"I'll get it!" A young girl screamed, barrelling down from the second level of the house to open the front door. She had long, unusually straight, dark brown hair that came down to the middle of her back. Her eyes were hazel eyes and she was of slightly above average height.

"Good morning," the strange woman at the door said, "my name is Minerva McGonagall. Are you Rhythm Song?"

"Oh, you're here to speak to Mel." The girl replied dismissively. "Are you another school come to see if she wants to transfer?"

"Yes, but I think that the circumstances are somewhat different." The woman replied. "Are your parents in?"

"Yeah, I'll just call them." The child turned away and yelled out, "Mum! There's a strange lady at the door that's here about Mel."

A few seconds passed before a woman, who was obviously the girl's mother, came into the hallway. The resemblance between mother and daughter was unmistakeable. Amie had the same unnaturally straight hair that her daughter had, though hers was cut back to her shoulders. Her eyes were clear blue that was not particularly noteworthy. The same features that made her daughter look elven made Amie look worn out and tired from the stress of raising two children.

"Elaina!" The woman chastised her daughter with the resigned nature of someone who was not expecting it to do much good. "What have I told you about being so rude? My name is Amie Parades, sorry about that Miss…."

"Professor McGonagall." The Professor finished. "I'm here to talk to Rhythm about Hogwarts."

"Another school, then? You'd better come in." Amie sounded resigned even as she directed the Professor into the living room and to a chair before offering her a drink.

"No thank you, Mrs Parades. I'm quite alright." McGonagall responded. Amie shrugged and turned to her daughter.

"Can you please go up and get your sister?" She requested, before calling after and adding, "And be nice."

There was a pause before McGonagall broke it by asking, "I hope you don't mind my inquiring, but your last name Parades is not the one that your eldest daughter bears."

"She's adopted that's why." Amie answered. "Her mother died before she could be named but I don't know what of. Her full name is Rhythm Melody Song. She was named by her mother before she died. I don't know the significance of her name, though. Of course, two years after we adopted her I fell pregnant with Elaina. I don't think it would be as bad if Elaina wasn't so jealous of Melody for her academic and intellectual achievements as well as her intelligence."

At that moment both adults heard the sound of thundering feet and a new voice screamed, "Give me back my book, _Elaina_!"

"Mum said you needed to come down to the living room, _Rhythm_!" Elaina yelled back as she raced through the door to the living room. She handed the book to her mother before flouncing off to the backyard just as her sister came racing into the room with a furious expression on her face. The girl had exceptionally long blond hair that fell just passed her hips and curled every which way in an uncontrollable manner. Her eyes were a swirling blue-grey that seemed to change colour every time the girl moved her head and she looked a good deal younger than her purported eleven years. If McGonagall had been asked to guess the girl's age, without prior knowledge she would have said seven or eight.

"Mum, make her leave me alone!" The girl said, the low tone of her voice making a demand of what would have been a petulant whine from any other child that age.

"Melody, we've talked about this." Amie reprimanded but her tone indicated that she had already given up. "You need to socialise more and not isolate yourself so much." Melody simply scowled in response to her mother's words. "Fine, I'll go over to Meredith's house tomorrow, satisfied? _Now _can I have my book back?"

"We have a guest that wants to speak with you about a school. I need to go and finish dinner, can I trust you to be polite or do I have to stay?" Amie obviously didn't want to leave her daughter alone but also needed to get a number of chores done.

"Yes, I'll play nice." The young girl sighed; Amie didn't look convinced but left anyway. Melody then turned to the Professor and took in the dark green robes the woman was wearing as well as he tightly pinned bun and black pointed hat.

"Now Miss Song, my name is Professor McGonagall and I am the Deputy Headmistress at a prestigious school called Hogwarts."

When the Professor paused, Melody interrupted saying , "I've had many schools come around asking me to transfer there because, all modesty aside, I am a genius, but never have I been courted by one with such a unique name claiming to be 'prestigious' and not have heard of it." She raised a perfectly formed eyebrow at the Professor with a challenging look.

"That," the Deputy Headmistress responded with what she felt was exceeding patience, "is because Hogwarts is a very exclusive school and only accepts those with a unique gift."

McGonagall paused for the girl to interject but she simply frowned and waited expectantly for the clarifying speech to follow.

"Hogwarts, Miss Song, only accepts those with the gift of magic." McGonagall said with a certain amount of drama. Now, the normal response that she encountered was one of denial followed closely by disbelief which was in turn either followed by a demand for proof or a demand to leave. Melody, however, did none of this and simply jumped straight to the final stage, excitement.

She let out a loud shriek that caused the older witch to wince heavily and flinch away into the chair.

"I knew it!" She cried out as she did a little dance around the room.

"Yes, Miss Song, magic is real. I presume I don't have to provide any proof of my claim?" McGonagall asked. Melody waved a hand dismissively.

"No, it's fine."

"Very well, then we can proceed onto some more pressing matters." McGonagall said. "I presume from your actions that you have accepted your invitation to Hogwarts, yes? Good, now to clarify you seem to prefer to be called by your middle name, Melody, instead of your first name, Rhythm, so would you prefer me to change the school records so that you are known as Melody Song?"

"Melody Song, definitely. I'm used to that name anyway as that's the name I go by at the school I attend now." Melody responded carelessly.

"Very well," McGonagall said as she made a note with a quill that she had pulled from her pocket on a piece of parchment. "Now then, would you like me to accompany you to Diagon Alley, which is where you will be buying your school supplies for your school years, or would you like to go alone with your family?"

Melody turned an appraising eye over the Professor that gave her the familiar feeling of her soul being examined before she indicated that McGonagall should wait a minute and then left the room.

McGonagall brushed off the feeling, a child that young couldn't possibly know Legilimency, and glanced around the room to distract herself. She took particular notice of the photos scattered along the mantle and the walls as well as a display cabinet that held many awards dedicated to a 'Miss Rhythm Melody Song' (as well as a couple that appeared to be named after her) and very few for a 'Miss Elaina Teaghan Parades.'

'_Sibling rivalry,' _McGonagall thought worriedly to herself, '_Miss Song has set a blazing trail and is clearly more accomplished than her younger sister and they both know it.'_

Melody chose that moment to enter the room with her mother and younger sister. They all resumed their seats before Amie started to speak. "So my daughter is magical and not some kind of freak of nature."

"Or at least, not anymore of a freak than she already is." Elaina mumbled under her breath clearly enough for everyone in the room to hear. The intended target just rolled her eyes dismissively as Amie berated Elaina for her comment. Once she had finished chastising her biological daughter, she turned back to the Professor.

"And how much will this cost per year?" She asked.

"The cost is 1350 galleons for the first two years and at the end of their second year before the summer holidays, generally during the month of May or June, you can apply for a scholarship for your child or children and the tests are scheduled for some time during July." McGonagall explained. "The general cost of third through fifth year are maximum 1500 galleons, depending on the electives you child chooses. For the sixth and seventh years the cost increases once more to an average of 1700 galleons, again depending on the subjects chosen."

"And how much is a galleon to a British pound?" Melody queried.

"There are approximately five pounds to every galleon depending on the current exchange rate." McGonagall replied.

"So that's 6750 for the first two years, 7500 each for the next three years maximum and for the final two it comes to 8500 per year dependant on subject selection." Melody announced to the room after barely a second's pause. McGonagall had barely picked her mouth up off the floor when she continued. "Meaning all up it costs £53 000 or 10 600 galleons for the whole seven years."

"That is amazing." McGonagall murmured after a pause. Elaina scowled at her sibling; Melody simply smiled back.

"That's not much." Amie replied hesitantly.

"But that's only the tuition, board and food. We have to pay for the equipment and textbooks." Melody said before McGonagall could say anything.

"Yes, that's correct and the Magical World hasn't experienced nearly as much inflation in our prices as the Muggles due to being a much smaller community."

"Excellent! Mother, can I go?" Melody asked.

"I'll have to ask your father." Amie conferred responsibility onto her husband, Carmine Parades. "Can we get back to you later?"

"Certainly," McGonagall answered, "but we will require a response by the 31st of July. If you send a letter to Albus Dumbledore, Care of Hogwarts School, Scotland then our people in the Postal System will make sure it is delivered properly. The appropriate spelling is contained within the letter, if you require it."

"Very well, Professor, thank you for your time." Amie smiled at the Deputy Headmistress.

* * *

Later that night while the family was eating dinner, Melody brought up Hogwarts.

"I got another school representative today." She announced matter-of-factly to Carmine Parades.

"Oh really, who was it this time?" He asked. "I thought all the important ones had already been and gone."

"It's a school called Hogwarts and it's based in Scotland. It's a magical school. Pass the potatoes, please." The potatoes were passed down to her as Carmine's jaw hit the table and almost displaced his food.

"What?" He spluttered, "Magic?"

"Yes," Amie sighed. "You have to admit that it does make a sense given all those unexplainable occurrences when she was a child."

They both turned to look at Melody who had served herself some of the potatoes and was now calmly eating them.

"Alright then, would you like to go?" Carmine found his misgivings

"Of course! It sounds absolutely fascinating!" Melody enthused. "And it should only cost approximately 53 000 pounds for the tuition for all seven years."

"Okay then, did the representative give you any other information?" He asked. "When does the term start? Where do we buy the equipment you'll need?"

"Don't worry," Melody interrupted her guardian calmly. "The letter that the Professor left us with is very informative. The term starts on the first of September, I catch a train to get there from Platform 9 ¾ which I get onto by walking through the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 and we get all our equipment and books from Diagon Alley which is on Charing Cross Road."

"Know-it-all," Elaina muttered.

"Elaina!" Amie cried. "Be nice to your sister!"

"Well it's not like she's _actually_ my sister!" Elaina retorted. "She's some kind of freakish magical person."

"You might be one too." Melody said calmly as she started to clean off the dinner table.

"What?" The younger girl sat stupefied.

"Oh yes. We might not be related but new blood would have to come in eventually or they'd have bred themselves into infertility a long time ago. There's probably a test we can do in Diagon Alley when we go. McGonagall said to stop by the bank first and see if I am eligible to inherit anything from a dead family line so maybe there's a similar test we can do to see if you're magical."

"Really?" Elaina asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes probably," Melody replied distantly, having already mentally moved on from the conversation. "I'm going up to my room to finish reading my textbook, goodnight."

* * *

_11__th__ July_

"So where do we go now?" Amie asked patiently as she grabbed Elaina's hand so she didn't run off.

"We go into this store." Melody announced, walking into a doorway that Amie couldn't see.

"The Leaky Cauldron? What kind of name is that?" Elaina snorted in disgust.

"What Leaky Cauldron? I don't see anything." Amie replied, confused, as her daughter took her hand and led her impatiently into the invisible establishment that suddenly appeared before her eyed once she passed the threshold.

Amie looked around herself, gaping in shock at the strange dress of the patrons, before spotting Melody at the bar talking to the bartender, an unremarkable middle aged man. Melody beckoned them over when she saw them at the entrance.

"He's going to open the passageway for us." She announced coolly. "Come on, it's around the back."

They followed her through a doorway that led out to an alleyway at the back of the property with rubbish bins scattered around and saw the man pull a long stick of wood out of his robes.

"Remember this," he said gruffly, before tapping a series of bricks above the bins.

"Thank you, Tom," Melody said politely as the bricks opened up into an arch. Tom nodded his head abruptly and walking back inside the Leaky Cauldron.

They walked through into Diagon Alley together and even Melody was stunned. Her vocal cords produced no sound even though her mouth was open in astonishment.

"Bloody hell," Elaina whispered and privately, Melody agreed.

"Language," Amie admonished automatically before shaking herself back into coherency. "What shall we get first?"

"We'll get the books last because we will undoubtedly get distracted." Melody acknowledged before voicing the rest of her plan. "Let's go to Gringotts first to see about the blood test that the Professor recommended and then we'll get to my trunk so we can carry around the stuff. Shall we?" Melody finished, gesturing in the direction of the wide double doors of the bank.

Amie nodded and they all began to walk down the alley. Melody powering on ahead while Amie and Elaina trailed behind gaping at everything. They moved slowly through the crowd until they found themselves at the bottom of white stairs leading up to an enormous white building with the words _'Gringotts' _across the top for all to see.

They entered through the extremely tall doors and entered an antechamber. Melody looked around the walls at the tapestries of small creatures attacking what looked to be a large army of humans until she heard Elaina's gasp and followed her gaze to an engraving above the doors that leading further into Gringotts.

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed_

_For those who take, but do not earn_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn_

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there_

"Nice poem," Melody muttered while filing away a mental note to try and get her hands on some blueprints. She continued to look around at the tapestries until Amie called out for her to catch up. They walked into the main area of Gringotts and quickly found a short ugly looking creature that did not seem to be doing anything and approached him.

"Good morning, my name is Melody Song." She introduced herself politely. "I was wondering if it were possible for my sister and me to have a blood test performed to see if we are valid heirs to any unclaimed family lines."

The impressive sneer which had greeted them from the goblin's face had vanished to be replaced with a respectful visage upon hearing the girl's name.

"Certainly, allow me to call someone to take you to have the tests performed."

"Flexline," the goblin called. He then waited for Flexline to present himself before speaking his instructions. "You are to take these prestigious clients to have a blood test done and then take them to the family vaults of the names that show for the youngest. Follow Protocol One for the eldest."

Flexline nodded his head. "Yes, superior. Follow me."

He addressed the last to the family and they trailed after him through many tunnels and caverns that made up the underground section of Gringotts. Melody made sure to memorise their route in case of an accident or trap as the continued deeper and deeper in the tunnels. The words 'Protocol One' were echoing in her mind as they walked.

"Here we are." The goblin announced, suddenly turning left into a cavern after ten minutes of walking in silence. After they entered the room Flexline turned to them and said to Melody, "As the oldest child miss, you will most likely inherit everything and your sister nothing."

"I'm adopted; it is statistically improbable for us to both be related to the same wizarding family." She informed the goblin. "Also, is there a form of this test that will only work for a witch or wizard?"

"Yes," He answered.

"Is it harmful to one who is not magical?"

"No."

Melody turned to her sister and raised an eyebrow. The younger girl nodded her head slowly.

"Use that one then," Melody instructed Flexline.

"It will take longer." Flexline informed them.

"Doesn't matter," she responded flippantly.

"Very well," he replied before starting to prepare the ritual.

Five minutes later Elaina stood in the middle of eight black diamonds that spanned a length over what looked to be a metre and had placed in grooves on the ground in the shape of an octagon.

"Okay, so what do I have to do?" Elaina asked nervously.

"Absolutely nothing," the goblin stated shortly before snapping his fingers and starting the ritual. Nothing happened for the first ten seconds before suddenly the diamonds exploded into violent and absolute blackness. It was not just that they were black (because they were already black being that they were _black diamonds_), but more that they seemed to suck all the light from the surrounding area.

Eventually the blackness began to recede from the crystals and leak out into the air, but it happened so gradually that none of the humans noticed until a cloud began to form around Elaina.

Once the darkness had been completely emptied from the crystals, it started to slowly bleed until it was no longer a cloud of oppressive blackness but was a bright, vivid red. The moment that the transformation of colour finished the cloud swirled down into a spiral towards the parchment that the goblin held forming a family tree that kept gaining names until the cloud had been completely absorbed by the parchment.

"What does it say?" Elaina was practically vibrating with excitement.

Melody reached over and jerked he piece of parchment out of the goblin's hand. "Obviously you're a witch, given that the ritual worked and you're from a family called Greengrass." Melody announced coolly, ignoring the glare that the goblin felt fit to bestow upon her.

"How do you know which family it is?" Elaina asked, all previous enthusiasm absent in the face of proving her sister wrong.

"The Greengrass family is not one that has an open vault for their descendants, however I will be taking all three of you down to the vault for Miss Song so you may retrieve some galleons for you younger sibling to purchase things if you wish."

"Which vault is this?" Melody queried, faintly amused. "You couldn't possibly have any idea of the family or families that I am descended from. My sister and I are not blood relatives, as I mentioned before, and even if we were you just told us that there is not vault we can access."

"That's because your vault has been waiting for you for over a thousand years. This way, please." Flexline responded, leading them into a dark tunnel and completely ignoring Melody's attempts to bombard him with questions.

* * *

"Have you got the money bags, darling? Good," Amie murmured distractedly. "Let's go off and get your robes first. Hmm… I wonder where we would get those from. Oh, good spot Melody, sweethearts. Let's go and get you fitted quickly because we have a lot of other stuff to do today. We'll pick up the textbooks last because I just know we're going to end up spending hours in there."

Amie continued to mutter plans to herself as the group of three walked down the Alley towards Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions with Melody and Elaina following closely behind ignoring the murmurs with well-practiced ease.

"Hello there, dearie, Hogwarts?" The woman at the counter asked Melody brightly.

"Yes, thanks and I'd like to order two plain black robes, one plain blue one and a green one as well, please, all for casual wear as well as the school robes." Melody requested politely. "Also, do you have any magical additions?"

"Yes we do, dear. We have in-built Resizing, Cooling, Heating and Protective Charms. They all come in varying strengths except the first, those can only be stretched for up to two sizes either way, and all are of a much higher quality because the thread is charmed before being woven, not after.

"Each added charm increases the cost of the robes by seven sickles, the price of the Hogwarts robes are one galleon apiece and the casual robes are ten sickles apiece."

"I would like to have all the charms added to my robes, including the Hogwarts robes, to the highest degree possible, please." Melody replied, figuring that Scotland could get very cold during the winter and if she was putting Healing Charms on then the Cooling Charms made sense as well and the other two were just common sense with the fact that she had not had her growth spurt yet and seemed to make enemies in copious amounts wherever she went.

"Very well, hop up on this stool here, love, and I'll measure you for your robes." Madam Malkin said as she bustled Melody over to stand on stool so that she can be fitted for her purchases.

Melody zoned out as the fabric was pinned this way and that on her body. A few minutes later Madam Malkin managed to capture her attention after what was obviously a long time spent attempting to bring Melody out of her thoughts.

"Sorry, what were you after?" Melody asked, embarrassed.

"You're all finished, dearie. Your mother and sister are waiting at the front counter as well."

"Of course, thank you madam." Melody said politely. "Have a wonderful day."

Melody walked to the front of the store and paid for her purchases before locating her relatives and walking back out onto Diagon Alley.

"Where to next?" Melody asked Amie carelessly.

"Your wand next, so if that takes too long I can go and get you your Potions equipment and ingredients while you're busy." Amie replied distractedly.

"How about we split up now, then?" Melody suggested. "You take this bag-" here Amie was handed a money bag by Melody, "-and you go get the Potions stuff and I'll get my wand and the trunk. We can meet at the bookstore, Flourish and Blotts, in about an hour, okay? Good."

Melody walked off before either Amie or Elaina could respond.

"Wand shop, wand shop… now where would that be?" She said to herself pensively. She was paused in the middle of the street thinking aloud when a black-haired woman with extremely long and curly hair spoke to her.

"Are you looking for your wand? Your best bet would be Ollivander's, he makes the best wands. You'll find his shop at the very end of the Alley to the right of Gringotts."

"Thank you for your assistance." Melody gave the woman a bright smile and had to brush off a sense of familiarity. She turned to watch the woman leave but she had already disappeared into the crowd. Melody shrugged and followed the directions she had been given, finding herself standing in front of a story with a sign that read:

__Ollivanders  
___Makers of Fine ___Wands___ since 382 BC_

She entered the dark store and looked around avidly.

"Amazing," she whispered in shock.

"Thank you, Miss Song." A creepy, whispering voice came from behind the small girl causing her to jump a full foot off the ground. She turned around disgruntled to face the man she assumed was wandmaker. He held a measuring tape in one hand and a wand in the other. With a gesture, the tape began to take her measurements.

"How do you know my name?" She asked suspiciously.

The old man with the crazy white hair and disturbing silver eyes just smiled mysteriously at her.

"Now, before we can you for a wand I must first ask which arm your wand arm is."

"I'm ambidextrous," Melody replied, faint amusement ringing through her voice as she watched the measuring tape take the measurement of her inner thigh without any physical contact between it and Ollivander. "But how did you know my name?" Melody demanded again.

"Very well then, we'll just have to measure both of your arms. Put them both out to the side and just let the tape do its work."

Melody did as she was bid as she asked again, "How did you now my name?"

"Now," Ollivander continued, ignoring her question for a second time. "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Miss Song. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand.

"Let's start with this one, mahogany and dragon heartstring, ten inches, a bit bendy. Take it and give it a wave."

Melody took the wand and flicked it slightly, causing the chair in the corner to disintegrate. Ollivander snatched the wand out of her hand as Melody raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"A bit too powerful for that one, try redwood and unicorn hair, twelve and a quarter inches, supple."

Melody took the wand from him and didn't even have time to wave it before her clothes hair and skin all became the same bright shade of fluorescent orange. She put the wand down on the counter and stared down at herself with her nose wrinkled in disgust.

"No matter, no matter," Ollivander said dismissively, waving his hand to return her to normal. As he spoke the next sentence, Melody watched him speculatively before returning her attention to his words.

"How about this one? Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Melody took the wand and flicked it promptly turning the counter into a pile of splinters.

"No, no, not for you either. A tricky customer, eh? Normally these wands would do perfectly for someone with your personality type. Hmm… may I?" Ollivander had taken out his wand and was holding it loosely in his hand pointing it vaguely in her direction.

"May you what?" Melody queried imperiously.

"Cast a diagnostic charm on you." Ollivander answered, ignorant or simply uncaring of her tone. "To gauge how powerful you are. It may simply be that a wand will have to be custom fitted for you."

"Very well, then." Melody gave her consent warily, watching the wand sharply.

Ollivander muttered the incantation while waving his own wand in a complicated configuration too rapidly for Melody to accurately recall what shape his wand had made. A bright purple glow surrounded the girl, so bright as to be blinding, and Melody watched his face carefully to see if this was a good or bad thing but the shock on the old man's face gave nothing away.

"Interesting… and very curious. I did not believe, but-" Ollivander cut himself off and addressed her directly. "I imagine, Miss Song, that this wand belongs to you." He reached below the counter and pulled out a deep red box that clashed with the faded purples and blues of the other boxes. The old man opened the box and gestured for his customer to take the wand straight from the cushioning inside.

She did so and a burst of multi-coloured sparkles burst from the end of the wand.

"Very good," Ollivander muttered with a fanatical glint to his eye. "I expect great things from you with that wand, Miss Song. Your wand is a natural blend of redwood, silver lime and walnut with phoenix feather, fourteen inches, bendy. Take good care of it, Miss Song, and it will take good care of you. That will be seven galleons, please."

Melody placed the wand back into the box and pulled the galleons out of one of the money bags before hesitating, looking at the length of her wand and then back at her hand.

"Do you have something I could use to carry my wand around for everyday use?"

"Most students, I believe, elect to carry their wands around in their robe pockets. However if you would prefer I can provide you with a holster for ten galleons." Ollivander replied.

Despite being unnerved by his manner, or perhaps because, Melody elected not to try and enter his mind and instead asked, "What part of my body would it attach to?"

"If you adjust the straps then they can be attached to almost any part of your body." Ollivander replied, with an air that suggested he knew what she had been considering.

"Very well, I'll take one. Please," she added as an afterthought, too busy examining his face. Ollivander nodded before disappearing behind the counter into the shelves. He came out with a holster that looked like it was made of leather, except for the magical aura Melody could detect from it.

He handed it to her and she looked over it before nodding, "I'll take it."

She pulled out the required amount of galleons and handed them to the wandmaker before attaching the holster to her arm and placing her wand into it from the box.

"Farewell," Melody said to Ollivander, nodding to him.

"It has been bespelled with a Notice-Me-Not Charm," Ollivander informed her suddenly as she turned to exit his shop.

She glanced back at him, startled, and raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry?"

"All my holsters are bespelled with a charm to stop people noticing them, as well as an Anti-Summoning Charm and an Ever-Returning Charm. The first stops people summoning your holster to gain control of your wand and the second returns your wand immediately to your holster once you are no longer in physical contact with it." Ollivander replied, serenely.

"Interesting," Melody said, giving her holster an appraising glance. "Thank you for your time, sir."

Ollivander nodded to her in response and she quickly took her leave, still unnerved by the old man;s unsettling manner.

She glanced around as she walked down Diagon Alley looking for a store that might sell trunks, still pondering the mystery of the wand that she was absentmindedly twirling in her hands. She found one quickly once she entered the main part of the Alley and, walking in, she immediately sought out an assistant to help her.

"Hello," she began politely. "I'm looking for a trunk for Hogwarts however I would like it to be able to store a large amount of books, please."

"Yes, I think I have just the thing for you, miss." The attendant said delightedly and smiling widely. He led her to a display of trunks that were positioned under the label, _Hogwarts._

"This one here is perfect for any witch or wizard looking to travel with many books." The young man explained pointing to a bronze display trunk with the word _Ravenclaw_ embossed on the front in blue. "It has two compartments, one for general school things such as your cauldron, robes and other things you might like to take with you and your books go in the other compartment on these shelves. Both compartments come with an Undetectable Extension Charm on them and the book compartment has an Ever-Looping Charm on it, one of our exclusive features, so you can place your books in the order you would like and then slide the entire shelf over to the side to view them."

When the attendant paused for breath, Melody pursued her lips and considered before replying.

"Are there ways to include more than two compartments in a trunk?"

"That depends on the trunk, size, type, weight and material as well as many other things. But generally it's between eight and fourtee." The shop attendant answered.

"What sort of compartments can you have in a trunk?" She asked, mentally considering her options.

"Here's a brochure," he handed her a pamphlet from his pocket, "Take a look and see what you like. To get more information just tap on the name of the compartment with your wand. Choose which ones you'd like and then tick which size you'd like in the box. Here's some ink and a quill. Just call me over when you're done and I'll come and sort it out for you."

"Thank you," Melody dismissed him politely as she started looking through her brochure.

There were libraries in different styles, potion labs and even bedrooms and bathrooms. She stood there for several minutes before deciding on a library capable of holding up to 2000 books in a wall panel with a study area and a fireplace as well as a large, professional potions lab with a huge storage area for ingredients, a large bedroom with a bathroom en suite that included a queen-sized bed and a bath because, as part of the sales pitch, the brochure informed her that the dorms only had single beds and the bathrooms only had showers and frankly Melody wasn't going to be without a bath for a minimum of seven months out of the year. She also had two spare bedrooms with single beds and a connecting bathroom put in as well as a kitchenette and dining area with walls and a ceiling that showed the area directly outside of the trunk as if she was standing where the trunk was placed because forward-planning.

She also made sure to have a changeable colour scheme because she had no idea of wizarding customs and didn't particularly fancy having a colour that represented something negative. She then browsed through the pictures to choose the style of her trunk and eventually settled on a normal-looking, brown trunk with her name etched onto it and, as an afterthought, added a normal compartment for her school things. She double-checked all her selections before checking the box that put all her additional rooms off a hallway that would descend from a second compartment, rather than have seven detached compartments and another one that allowed her to set a separate password for access to each compartment.

Melody caught the shop attendant's eye and smiled to let him know she was finished and he came over with a grin.

"Hello again, all finished?" He asked.

"Yes," Melody replied as she handed him the brochure. His eyebrows almost transcended his hairline in a manner that was highly unflattering.

"Are you sure you can pay for this? I mean… it's a lot of galleons, 1820 is." He asked doubtfully.

The young girl's face turned abruptly from open and welcoming to cold and harsh.

"Yes, I am quite sure." She smiled frostily at the man.

"Very well," he said, taken aback by the change in her demeanour. "Will you be paying by deposit or cash?"

"Cash," she answered, pulling out one of the wallets and handing it to him. "That contains 1000 galleons and you'll have to pull out the other 820 from this one with magic."

She put the second bag (the one that she had withdrawn the money for her wand and holster from) for the attendant to deal with. He pulled out what looked like an old-fashioned set of scales that seemed to be missing a set of weights to go with it from under the counter and placed the small mountain of coins onto the scale's tray that magically expanded to fit all the coins. The scales flexed back and forth until they were balanced and then the number 1983:00:00 appeared above it. He kept adding and removing galleons until the first number showed 1820 instead.

The attendant nodded his head and turned back to Melody, handing her a receipt and both the money bags, one containing the remainder of the coins. "That's perfect. Your trunk will be ready in about an hour and we'll keep it in the back for you for a week before putting it on sale and if you arrive after then you'll get your money back minus a 10% fee."

"We'll be coming back later today to collect it so that shouldn't be an issue." Melody replied as she looked over the receipt to make sure everything was in order and spotted sale on the back. _'Get a free book bag for every 500 galleons spent!'_

"Actually, can I get two book bags as well?" She asked holding up the receipt to him. "And maybe a small leather purse, too?"

"Certainly," he replied with an eager grin, having regained his enthusiasm. "What styles would you like?"

"One book bag in the same style as my trunk, the purse too, and the other in…" She trailed off as she recalled the brochure. "And another in that black leather with silver trimmings, please."

She'd give the black one to Elaina for her birthday or Christmas.

"Great! And I'll give you the purse for fee and I'll also throw in an Undetectable Extension Charm for free on all the extra purchases." He said cheerfully as he took the receipt off her and stamped it before handing it back.

"I'll see you later then. Bye!" He said, waving his hand goodbye as she walked out the door looking at the stamp covering the offer that read, _'Redeemed'_.

* * *

Melody walked through the open double doors of Flourish and Blotts, found Amie and absentmindedly handed her the receipt from the trunk store as she stared at her Hogwarts letter before finding a basket. She walked to the front and smiled at the young woman with bright red hair behind the counter whose badge read _'Molly'_.

"Can I help you, dear?" She asked genially.

"Yes, please. I start Hogwarts this year and I was wondering if you could tell me where I would find my books?"

"Oh no, you don't have to worry about that, love. We keep sets behind the counter for every student. What was your name?"

"Melody Song, but it may be down under Rhythm."

"Yes here we go, Melody Song – first-year." Molly read her name off the stack of books while she put them on the counter.

"Thank you, ma'am," Melody said, "I'm going to be purchasing some more books though, so could I pay for these and just leave them at the counter until I'm finished?"

"Of course, dear, the first-year set comes to 15 galleons and 7 sickles." Molly announced cheerfully as she rang up the total. Melody handed her 16 galleons from the mostly empty money bag and the young woman counted it before placing it in the till and handing her back 10 sickles.

Melody thanked her before grinning and dashing off with her basket down the aisles. She found herself in the Charms' section and glanced around until she located what seemed to be the books for beginners with titles like,_ "A Beginner's Guide to Charms" _and _"When to Swish and When to Wave"_. She pulled those two down from the shelves and grabbed a couple of others after checking to make sure that they weren't on the book list before dumping them all into her basket and moving on to the next aisle.

Passing the History section, and leaving it until last so she didn't get distracted, she went through all the sections, picking up beginner's books as she went. When she got to the History section, she grabbed an overview from the last two millennia titled, _"Magic Worldwide Since Christianity"_. She also grabbed the last copy of _"Hogwarts; A History" _on display as well as a history book for the twentieth century that seemed to cover things that weren't goblins (and a swift flick through confirmed this).

She walked along, randomly placing books that caught her fancy into her basket; a history on Diagon Alley and other magical sites, one on the Ministry of Magic and something called the Wizengamot, amongst many others including one that was quite a find as it answered basic questions about the wizarding world and magic and seemed to be meant for muggleborns just entering the magical world. Eventually the basket actually started getting heavier with every book she added to it and she figured that it was probably her cue to pay for them and go before she filled another basket.

While walking up to the counter, dragging the basket along the floor as it was too heavy for her to lift on her own, she brushed up against a man who was browsing the Offensive Magic section. He glared down at her and sneered.

"Filthy mud blood, dirtying up my robe!" He pushed passed her rudely and walked further down the aisle. Melody rolled her eyes, brushed off the unfamiliar insult and continued on her way to the counter to pay for her books.

"Excellent selection, dear," Molly commented enthusiastically. Melody had to repress a sigh at her cheerfulness, not enjoying a bit now that she no longer had the excitement of browsing the shelves to distract her.

"Thank you," she replied, swallowing her irritation and giving a smile instead.

"Oh you're headed for Ravenclaw with brains like that for sure!" "Molly enthused. "That comes to 143 galleons, 8 sickles and 23 knuts."

This amount of money warranted the use of the weights and as Melody pulled the coins out of her purse, Molly pulled the weights out from under the till and gestured for the girl to put the money on them. She poured out the rest of the leftover coins from her previous transaction and counted out 5 galleons and 1 sickle, put them back into the bag and pushed the rest towards the other woman. She magicked the coins onto the scales and the numbers 148:09:23 shone above the stack. She placed the money into the till and withdrew some knuts.

"Excellent, here's your 5 knuts change," Molly said, beaming.

"Great," Melody said excitedly, accepting a single magically expanded and reinforced bag that contained all of her books and her change. "Thank you for your help."

After making her farewells and checking both her purchases and the receipt, she went off to find her mother and sister so they could pick up her trunk and go home.


	2. First Year 2

**A/N: Sorry if I got the time of Elaina's school starting wrong. I've done so much research for this story that I figured that I'd just wing it with this one thing.**

**By the way, this is the last of the completely typed up and edited chapters. At the moment I have finished the third chapter, however it hasn't been typed up and edited so it may take a while. I'll try and keep it under two months but no promises.**

* * *

_1__st__ September_

Melody walked through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 and stopped about five metres in, glancing backwards to make sure her parents got through alright before continuing on. Elaina had started school the day before and, as such, couldn't come see Melody off.

Melody paused again about a quarter of the way down and waited for her parents to catch up. When they did Amie smiled down at her. "Play nice dear and don't offend the other students or boast too much about your skills, most people don't like that, and please do try and make sure that we don't get letters home filled with reprimands about your behaviour."

"I'll try, but these wizards do seem awful ignorant and stuck in the 1600s." Melody justified.

"Alright on the train with you, it leaves in five minutes. We'll see you for Christmas." Carmine told her. Melody nodded, pulled out her wand and levitated her trunk onto the train. She hopped up behind it, leaned over and gave her parents a kiss before walking off and trying to find a carriage. The train started moving while she was still walking and a minute later she was almost run over by a redheaded girl and her friend as they exited a compartment.

"Sorry," the girl apologized immediately. "I'm Lily Evans and this is Severus Snape." She gestured to her friend and Melody nodded.

"Melody Song, pleased to meet you." Snape snorted and Melody glared at him. "It's not like you can laugh at my name when yours is just as ridiculous. Excuse me."

Melody pushed past him and, as she opened the door to the compartment, she heard Lily say, "That wasn't very nice, Sev. She was just saying hello." Melody's reasoning for entering the compartment being that if the compartment had people in it and they'd just made _that_ leave then they couldn't be too bad. "Hello, do you mind if I join you?" Melody decided that being polite wouldn't be a bad thing in this situation and the two boys in the compartment shrugged. Melody pulled out her wand and levitated her trunk onto the shelf above the seats. Both of the boys stared at her and one asked, "You know how to float things?"

"Of course, it's not that hard. I can do all the spells for this year. I thought Transfiguration was the hardest though." Melody shut her mouth before she kept talking and made it sound like she was boasting. The boys were boys were still staring at her. "My name's Melody Song, what are your names?"

"James Potter," the boy closest to the window said, staring at her. "And he's Sirius Black." Melody nodded her head. "Do either of you know what we do for the Sorting? I tried to find out, but Mum said I could only buy five extra books and I figured the library would have a copy of _Hogwarts; a History_."

James responded, "I dunno, my dad said something about a troll." Melody wrinkled her nose. "Really? How would they get a hold of a troll?"

"No idea." James grinned at her. "Do you know what House you want to be in?" He asked her, excited.

"House, what do you mean?" Melody queried, the boys stared at her again.

"Okay," Sirius began to explain. "There are four Houses, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each House has different tendencies. Gryffindors are brave, Hufflepuffs are loyal, Ravenclaws are smart and Slytherins are cunning, backstabbing little inbred maniacs."

"You don't like Slytherin, do you?" Melody asked, amused at his antics. "Why?"

"My whole family's full of them and they're evil. I'm a pureblood; that means that there's been no Muggles, that's non-magical folk, in my family. That includes Half-bloods, and Muggleborns, you're a Muggleborn."

"Does that matter? Magically I mean." Melody was suddenly afraid; she didn't want to be less than the best.

"Nah, course it doesn't." James joined in the conversation again. "Some people will call you a Mudblood but just ignore them." There was a knock on the door and it slid open.

"Anything from the trolley, dears?" There was a lady standing in the doorway and both the boys and Melody nodded. She waited patiently for the boys to purchase their stuff before getting up and buying five chocolate frogs, a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, two pumpkin pasties and three cauldron cakes. "Thank you." Melody smiled at the lady as she handed over the exact amount due and walked back to her seat. She had eaten one pasty and a chocolate frog while listening to the boys discussing Quidditch before she grabbed the pack of beans and Sirius warned her, "Beware, they really do come in every flavour."

Melody grinned at him and said, "That's half the fun, innit?" She popped a bean in her mouth and pulled a face. "Grass! Ah well, better luck next time. So, how exactly do you play Quidditch?"

Both the boys immediately began to explain. Sirius started, "Well there's seven players and it's played on broomsticks. Three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and a seeker."

James continued, "The Chasers all try and score through three big hoops with the Quaffle and the Keepers try to stop them. Each goal is worth ten points."

"The Bludgers fly around and try to knock people off their brooms and the Beaters try and stop them." Sirius said, bouncing on his seat in excitement.

James took over when Sirius knocked his head on the wall. "The Seekers try and catch the Snitch and the team that gets the Snitch wins one hundred and fifty points for their team. Generally at the level our school plays at, whoever gets the Snitch wins but in the National Leagues it's not so important."

Melody thought about it, "It sounds interesting enough. I take it first years aren't allowed to play? We weren't allowed to bring broomsticks after all."

The boys couldn't answer because they were interrupted by the compartment door banging open. Melody jumped and the intruder laughed. "Jumpy little one, isn't she?"

"Piss off, Lucius." Sirius snapped, shooting up.

"Now, now, Sirius, is that any way to speak to a prefect?" Lucius jeered at him, still laughing.

"Don't know why you were made a prefect anyway, must've been a process of elimination." Sirius retorted and Melody sniggered, causing Lucius' attention to focus on her.

"And who, exactly, are you?" He sneered at her and Melody glowered back at him while James shook his head at her frantically.

"As if that's any of your business." She snapped at him.

"Ah, you must be a Mudblood." Both the boys were standing now and looked ready to punch him. Lucius merely smirked at them. "What, _precisely_, are you going to do?"

"Nothing if you don't leave." Melody paused. "I am a genius." Lucius snorted at her and she smiled serenely up at him. He went for his wand but Melody had had hers out since he had entered the compartment. Still smiling, she disarmed him without any effort.

"What, _precisely_, are you going to do?" Melody echoed his words back at him and he glared at her, murderous. She threw his wand back to him, still pointing her wand at his head. "Please leave, my parents will be most unimpressed if I get a detention before I even arrive at the school." Melody stated without inflection, still smiling at him. Lucius snarled at her, but left without doing anything else.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" Sirius exclaimed, still standing up as James fell back onto the seat. Melody shrugged, slightly embarrassed. "I did say I knew all the spells."

"You _have_ to teach us how to do that." James said in awe.

"Okay," Melody agreed readily. "The incantation is _Expelliarmus_." For the rest of the train trip they traded knowledge. Melody taught them several spells and as they worked on them, they told her all about the magical world. They arrived at Hogwarts eleven minutes after it started raining, two minutes after the first bolt of lightning and twenty-three minutes before it start hailing.

"Firs' years over 'ere!" A giant of a man called out. "Firs' years." Melody tugged both the boys to him and waited by the boats. "A'right, I'm Hagrid. Keeper o' the Keys at Hogwarts. No more'n four to a boat." He gestured to the aforementioned boats.

Melody grabbed the two boys again and dragged them to an empty one. She clambered in and the boys got in behind her. They were quickly joined by a sandy haired boy who introduced himself as Remus Lupin and asked if he could join them.

"Sure," Melody said before the other two could respond. "I'm Melody and these two are Tweedledee and Tweedledum." Remus laughed and the ice was broken as the two boys looked at them in confusion. The boats started to move while the other three talked and Melody looked around at the surrounding environment.

"Mind yer 'eads." Hagrid called from the front where he had a boat all to himself. Everyone ducked under the rocky outcrop and the castle came into view. There was a splash from another boat next to them and everyone turned around.

A small pudgy boy had been pushed into the water by another boy with sandy hair a few shades lighter than Remus. James and Sirius moved to help him into their boat while Melody moved to the side of the boat with Remus so they could pull him in. After a few seconds Melody spoke up. "Guys, do you think the boat's meant to rock that way?"

Remus answered. "No I don't think it-" He was cut off as the boat tipped and Melody was thrown into the lake. Remus had just saved himself by grabbing onto the side and Sirius and James were weighed down by the boy they were heaving in.

"Thanks guys." Melody said sarcastically as she treaded water. "At least now we know why it's just four to a boat though."

Lily interrupted her complaints, gesturing for her to come and hop in the boat the other boy had just fallen out of. Melody gratefully took the hand that was offered and clambered into the boat. "Thanks, Lily. Geez that lake is cold." Melody's teeth were chattering.

"Yeh alrigh' back there?" Hagrid called out, concerned, over his shoulder.

"Yeah, 'm fine," Melody said, shaking in her seat, water dripping off her.

"Here, take my cloak." Snape offered, pulling it from around his shoulders. Melody smiled at him but shook her head. "Nah, I'll be fine."

"Nonsense," Lily said firmly. "Here." She took the cloak from Snape and draped it around Melody's shoulders. Melody gave them a smile which left them blinking and turned to the sandy haired boy. "And what's your name?" She asked him, putting her hand in her pocket to hold her wand.

"Barty Crouch Junior," the boy responded snidely.

"So why'd you push him in the lake then? It's not like he could hurt you." Melody was fierce in her defence of the unfortunate boy. A few people in the other boats were watching curious, obviously having heard about the incident on the train.

"Mudbloods like him and you shouldn't be allowed here." He retorted, his own hand in his pocket. They glared at each other for the rest of the journey while Lily and Snape talked softly in the back.

When they got to the shore, Melody gestured for Crouch to go first. He got out of the boat warily, keeping an eye on her the whole way and, once he was off, he walked to a group of people off to the side. Once Melody had both feet on the shore, she immediately started searching for James and Sirius and found them with Remus and the boy who had fallen in the lake.

"Hey, what was that all about?" James asked, waving in Crouch's direction.

"No idea." Melody replied. "When do you think we'll get dinner?" Remus shrugged and made as if to answer but Sirius cut across him, oblivious.

"I dunno, but I hope it's soon, I'm starved." He rubbed his stomach dramatically and Melody sniggered at him. He looked at her, mock offended, as they walked up to the castle and they began to have a loud conversation about what each tower was for exactly. James, Sirius and Melody made up most of the conversation with the occasional comment by Remus and the other boy following them simply laughed at a few of the comments. They were up to use number fifty-three, storing nuts for the winter when they arrived at the castle's gigantic double doors. Hagrid knocked, the noise echoing out into the room beyond, and Melody suddenly felt something land on her head… hard.

"Ouch!" She exclaimed and reached up to feel her head for any damage.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked worriedly.

"No, something hit me on the head." Melody answered, looking around for the culprit. "It's stopped raining" She remarked, evident realization on her face. The boys looked at her as if she were crazy. "Yeah, you just noticed? Ouch!" Sirius cried out and touched his head just as the doors opened up.

"Yeah, because it's hailing," Melody stated triumphantly, rushing through the doors ahead of everyone else just as the skies opened up. She darted passed the woman in the doorway who glared at her and began to speak just as the rest of the first years raced through the doors as well. Once the Professor straightened up, she turned to Melody. "Why are you wet?" She queried sternly.

"I fell in the lake, ma'am." Melody responded respectfully, lowering her head slightly to cover her grin. The Professor nodded once, flicked her wand and suddenly Melody's clothes were dry and warm. She repeated the spell for the boy who had been pushed in before speaking.

"Welcome to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, my name is Professor McGonagall." Her voice was stern and rang out around the room. No one dared say anything while she was speaking. Melody got the distinct impression that this wasn't someone to cross, which simply made her want to misbehave all the more. "There are four houses, each with its own impressive legacy: Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. While at Hogwarts, your house will be like your family. Good behaviour will be rewarded, while any rule breaking will be punished. You will wait here quietly while I go see if they're ready for you." McGonagall stared at them one last time before sweeping off.

"I wonder what she teaches." Melody said, staring around the Entrance Hall.

"She teaches Transfiguration." James said, also gazing around. "My cousin told me. He also warned to watch out for Slughorn, he's the Potions Professor. He said something about a Slug Club." James shrugged while the other two laughed. Melody turned around and spotted Remus. She flashed him a grin, waving him over. "Do you have any stories about Hogwarts, Remus?" She asked, almost vibrating with excitement.

"Not really, I know Flitwick teaches Charms and there's supposed to be a secret room on the seventh floor. I can show you guys if we all get Sorted into the same house." He offered shyly. At that moment, McGonagall came back.

"Follow me quietly." She said, her glare enough of an incentive to do as told, before turning around and entering the Great Hall. Melody's eyes went wide as she peered around the Hall trying to look at everything once. She looked up at the roof when someone whispered and she could see the sky. After peering at it for a few seconds, she could also see the roof. She looked away blinking a bit before catching sight of the floating candles and gasping. Behind her, Snape snorted at her enthusiasm.

"Keep your opinion to yourself." Melody whispered back forcefully, her gaze still scanning the room until her eye fixed on the Headmaster. She kept looking at him as someone put out a stool and a Hat. McGonagall cleared her throat and everyone went silent and turned to the Hat. Melody jumped a bit when the brim opened like a mouth and the Hat started to sing.

_Gryffindor could have used his belt,  
But me, a belt? not I.  
You can try to hide from everyone else,  
But to me you cannot lie._

_Slytherin is a noble house,  
Oft misunderstood.  
Always on the outs,  
Yet never really good._

_Gryffindor, the house of brave,  
Always raring for a fight.  
Looking for someone to save,  
Even if they're quite alright._

_Hufflepuff, the most loyal of all,  
They are often victimized.  
Not for them to start a brawl,  
A bit too uncivilized._

_Ravenclaw, the smartest ones,  
Where intelligence is the highest praise.  
They speak in a language of words and sums,  
Wanting to set their trail ablaze._

_Each with their own weaknesses,  
Each with their own strengths.  
Some victims and some geniuses,  
Avoiding the others by any lengths._

_I may not be a belt, on no,  
But still I am to Sort you.  
You cannot hide from me, though,  
For I am able to see truth._

Everyone clapped loudly when the Hat finished it's song and McGonagall told the first years, "When I call out your name you will come and sit on the stool and I will place the hat on your head. Adder, Paul." The Hat was on Adder's head for all of two seconds before it screamed out, "SLYTHERIN!"

"Aderill, Grace" was also a Slytherin and the first Hufflepuff was "Adell, Merryn" and the second "Aubrey, Bertram"; then it was Sirius' turn. He paused for a second after his name was called before walking out. Melody gripped James' hand so hard the tips of his fingers turned purple. The hat was on his head for over a minute before shouting, "GRYFFINDOR!"

There was silence in the Hall for a few seconds as Sirius pulled the Hat from his head and handed it to McGonagall saying, "Thank you, Minnie," before running off to the Gryffindor table. Melody cheered and a thunderous applause rose from the Gryffindor table. It took a minute before there was enough quiet to hear the next name McGonagall called out. "Bode, Prudence."

Bode was also a Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw got its first student in "Bridelpam, Mark." Two more people (one was Sorted into Ravenclaw and the other Hufflepuff) before "Crouch, Bartemius Junior" was called out. He strode over to the chair and the hat had barely touched his head when it called out, "SLYTHERIN!"

Three minutes later and Lily was called out. Melody saw her squeeze Snape's hand one last time before she walked timidly up to the stool. The Hat was on her head for over two minutes and Melody had the sneaking suspicion she was trying to argue being put into Slytherin but it was not to be. "GRYFFINDOR!" The Hat screamed and Lily pulled it off a bit dejectedly. She glanced at Snape apologetically, before walking to the Gryffindor table. Melody saw Sirius move over for her, but she ignored him and went to go sit by Lauren Davis who had been the second person Sorted into Gryffindor.

When Remus' name was called seven minutes later, he hesitated and after three seconds Melody gave him a shove in the back. He sat down on the stool, almost shaking the Hat off his head with fright and Melody decided to listen in. _"Ah, a werewolf." _The Hat muttered, _"Interesting."_

She immediately stopped listening and was so absorbed in ways she could help Remus, that she almost fell over when the Hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" She applauded loudly once she had recovered and gave him the thumbs up when he looked at her. She watched him go and sit opposite Sirius as "Macdonald, Mary" was Sorted into Gryffindor.

The only other remarkable event between Remus and James' Sorting, in Melody's opinion, was the silence that fell when a "Patricks, Roderick" was Sorted into Slytherin. "Damn," muttered James. "We're second cousins. I stayed over at his house for Easter one year. I never thought he'd get Sorted into Slytherin."

Melody thought about this as "Pettigrew, Peter" was called out and the boy who was pushed into the lake stepped forward looking absolutely terrified. "Are the houses really that important?" She asked doubtfully as Peter was Sorted into Gryffindor and walked down and sat next to Remus.

"Yes," James responded as his name rang out. He walked forward calmly and placed the Hat on his head. Five seconds later it screeched, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Melody cheered extra loud for him and watched as he swaggered to the Gryffindor table, high-fived Sirius and sit down next to him. Melody surreptitiously crossed her fingers in her pocket as the name "Prish, William" was called. It took her until the time that Snape was being Sorted to realise they were going to announce her full name to the entire school.

'Blast, dang and buggery,' Melody thought and the seconds slowly ticked by with Snape still being Sorted. When she glanced at her watch, she realized that Snape had been on the stool for almost five minutes. 'Probably arguing to have it put him in Gryffindor with Lily. Poor boy, he's going to be very lonely.' Melody thought to herself. With thirteen seconds left on Melody's watch, the hat shouted, "SLYTHERIN!"

She saw him throw a look to Lily who shrugged in apparent sadness as McGonagall called out, "Song, Melody."

There were whispers and laughs and Melody kept her face impassive as she walked forwards, sat down and then silence and darkness overwhelmed her senses. _"Well, well… what have we got here?"_ The Hat asked rhetorically. _"You have so many memories for one so young."_

Melody frowned mentally, _'What are you talking about? "So many memories…" I have just as many memories as every other eleven-year-old.'_

The Hat gave a little chuckle. _"Ah, so they're locked away. Well, I'd best be careful then."_

The Hat shuffled around on her head as if to get comfortable before sitting and muttering for an indeterminate amount of time. Melody heard random snippets of its thoughts. _"…can't put her there, might get her into trouble…" "…never thought I'd see someone _too _loyal for Hufflepuff…" "…tear them to shreds if she goes there..."_

"_Alright, I give up. You pick a House and I'll announce it. You've simply got too many memories." _It spoke up again after what seemed like an eternity of waiting for Melody.

'_What part of "I have just as many memories as every other eleven-year-old" escaped your notice?' _Melody responded, annoyed, and when it seemed like the Hat would argue she cut it off. _'Just put me into Gryffindor.'_

"_Very well,_" The Hat replied. _"But when you're ready to unlock those memories, come and see me anytime. _GRYFFINDOR!"

Melody pulled the (extremely frustrating) headwear off her head. The moment she did she was assaulted by the light and the whispers amongst a scattered applause. Melody got up, set the hat on the stool and walked over to the Gryffindor table where James and Sirius made room for her between them. "Why's everyone looking at me funny?" Melody whispered to Sirius as "Talkalot, Lucinda" was Sorted into Ravenclaw.

"You were on the stool for, like, fifteen minutes." Sirius hissed at her from her right. Melody's eyes widened. "Really?" She asked, astonished.

"It was more like eight minutes actually." Remus corrected bashfully, sitting opposite the three with Peter Pettigrew on his right and Mary Macdonald on his left.

"Oh, is that all? You had me worried for a second there." Melody said sarcastically, grinning at Remus so he could see she was joking. He smiled back at her after a second.

"Excuse me," a timid voice from Remus' left said. "I'm Mary Macdonald and I was just wondering… is your name _really_ Melody Song?"

"Yes it is," Melody said rolling her eyes. "My parents thought it was cute." Sirius sniggered and the Sorting finally finished. The last person, "Worth, Victoria" was Sorted into Slytherin following her twin sister, "Worth, Elizabeth".

"Finally," Sirius groaned, looking at the Headmaster expectantly. "Do the notices so I can eat!" He whined and Melody slapped him about the back of the head as Dumbledore stood up.

"Welcome back to our returning students and welcome to our first years. Everything else can wait until after dinner. Tuck in."

"Amen," Sirius called out, making everyone laugh, as the Headmaster sat down and threw his beard over his shoulder. Suddenly, there was food on the plates.

Melody helped herself to a selection of meats and she noticed Remus do the same. She thought about the full moon and realized it was the next night. "Poor Remus, that'll be why he looks so sickly," She thought mournfully as she dug into her own meal, making sure to leave room for dessert. They all chatted loudly, Remus getting gradually more comfortable speaking his own mind and even Peter and Mary would occasionally interject.

Soon the food was gone and Dumbledore was getting to his feet again. "Now, after a delicious meal I'm sure we're all ready for bed. However, a few start-of-term notices and we can all go to sleep. First, a Whomping Willow has been planted this year as part of a Ministry experiment. Do not go near it unless you wish a painful injury. The Forbidden Forest is, just like every other year, as forbidden as the name suggests.

"We have two new staff members with us this year. Professor Aurora Sinistra will take over Astronomy for Professor Jameson Bidle who has left us after forty-nine years. Our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is Professor Olimpia Fincher. I trust you will all treat them with the respect they deserve." At this, Sirius, James and Melody all exchanged a look.

"I get a disturbing feeling that whenever you look like that something bad is going to happen." Remus said warily. Melody patted him on the hand sympathetically and whispered to him, "Trust your instincts, Remus, in this case, they're spot on."

"First years follow the prefects to your common rooms. Good night all." Dumbledore said and there was a rush of noise as two prefects called out, "First years this way, please. Over here, first years."

Melody grabbed one of each of the boys' hands and dragged them behind the prefects as they led the way out, into the Entrance Hall to a moderately sized alcove under the stairs. "My name is Leanne Jones and this is Jean Smith. We're the fifth year Gryffindor prefects. Follow us and we'll take you to Gryffindor Tower." Leanne told them and began to lead the way, pointing out several classrooms along the way and telling them the classes held there. They had gone down several corridors, through two tapestries and were halfway up their fifth flight of stairs (the prefects telling the first years where all the classes were held, Melody being the only first year paying any attention) when a handful of flour hit Melody in the side of the head and she let out a loud exclamation. "What the…" She trailed off rubbing her head and seeing her hand come back with white on it.

"Run!" The prefects yelled and the first years sprinted in front of them. Once they stopped a few corridors along (after they had stopped being pelted with flour), the prefects explained. "That was Peeves the Poltergeist. He doesn't listen to anyone and likes to play immature pranks on all the students and teachers. The only ones he really listens to is the Bloody Baron and the Headmaster."

They continued walking with the Prefects explaining several statues and portraits and two minutes later they were standing in front of a portrait. This is the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. The password is '_Fortitudo_.'" Jean told them and the portrait swung forwards. Lily piped up, "Why?"

"It's Latin for bravery, courage and valour, all Gryffindor traits." Melody answered before turning to the portrait, climbing through the hole behind it and, once she was through and out of the way of people coming into the common room, started picking bits of flour out of her hair. "This is gonna take weeks to get out." She complained. Leanne walked over and pulled out her wand.

"Here you go." She said, tapping Melody's head and muttering, "_Scourgify_." Melody pulled a piece of the her forwards to make sure it was flour-free before flashing the prefect a smile that left her a bit dazed. "The girls' dormitories are to the right and boys' are to the left." Jean told them. "And any boy trying to go up the girls' dormitories will get a nasty surprised." He warned before walking away.

Melody turned to James and Sirius. "I'm going to go up to bed, I'm knackered. See you in the morning." She said yawning. Melody walked up the stairs, found her dormitory and the bed with her trunk at the end. She pulled off Snape's cloak, folded it and placed it in her trunk before going to the bed, lying down and pulling the hangings shut. She didn't bother getting changed and was asleep before she could even get under the covers.


	3. First Year 3

**A/N: So this chapter was the second chapter I wrote and it was started around a year and a half ago, hence the slightly different style. I'm not going to back to rewrite it and there's only so much editing I can do to even out the differences between the styles. As well as that the ending to this one is a bit forced because I wrote this chapter before I changed the date of the full moon and it was really awkward pulling Remus out of the scene. I had to scrap about three or four paragraphs and it really shows.**

**Anyway, the next chapter has been finished and it isn't really long but it does contain a fair bit. I'm writing an interlude at the moment (it's a letter telling Amie and Carmine about what's happened at Hogwarts and Melody's thoughts on magic so far) and it won't be that long… sorry!**

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**UPDATE: I have now edited this chapter and I've decided to combine the interlude with the next two chapters so it should be quite a bit longer, however this does mean it will take me longer to post it because I haven't actually transcribed or edited the final section. It is finished, though, so it shouldn't take me too long to transcribe and edit it.**

**Also, this chapter is self-edited, so if you spot any problems please let me know.**

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_2__nd__ September_

Melody stumbled down the stairs at quarter past seven the next morning to find the boys waiting for her on the chairs in front of the fireplace. She collapsed on top of James, making him grunt. "Good morning," she muttered blearily. "Need coffee." She had put her clothes on with her eyes still shut and something about her appearance made Sirius snigger.

"You look like it too." He said. "Have you even opened your eyes this morning?"

"No," She mumbled, shifting around on James' lap who also seemed half-comatose.

"Well, that explains why you didn't see the green trimming on your cloak." Remus said, trying to stifle his laughter dismally. "Are you trying to tell us something?"

"Wha-" Melody opened her eyes for the first time that morning to see that her cloak did indeed have a green trim. "Oh, it's Snape's cloak. He gave it to me when I fell in the lake. Well, I say gave. He offered expecting me to refuse and when I did, Lily forced it upon me." Melody yawned and stretched before getting up from James' lap and pulling out her wand. She performed a Switching Spell, focusing on the image of her cloak folded in her trunk. In a second she was wearing her cloak and Snape's was folded nicely in her trunk.

She spotted Peter as he came down the stairs when she opened her eyes again. "Hey Peter, come join us. We're about to go down to the Great Hall."

Peter jumped when she said his name. "Sure," he responded shyly. "Did you guys sleep well?"

"I did," Sirius responded. "But I'm not too sure James has finished yet. Perhaps ask him once we get downstairs."

"Argh, I hope there's coffee." Melody groaned.

"There probably won't be, not for the kids anyway." Remus commented as chirpily as he could this close to the full moon, Melody was sure. She turned to him and unleashed a glare. The effect was severely diminished by the fact that she only had one eye open and her face was scrunched up against the light.

"I hate morning people." She growled at him as Sirius tried ineffectively to get James up. Melody walked over to the water jug sitting on the window ledge and poured a glass. "Please don't tell me you're going to do what I think you are." Peter said nervously.

"Alright then," Melody said and Peter relaxed. "I won't tell you." She poured the water over James' head and he awoke with a shout. He stood, dripping water, in front of them before saying incredulously, "You poured water on me."

"You were asleep and I was awake. No one is allowed to be asleep when I'm not." Melody stated firmly.

"But you let your roommates sleep." James complained loudly while Sirius, Remus and Peter rolled around on the chairs and floor laughing. Melody smiled mischievously, "No I didn't."

"What did you do?" Remus asked cautiously.

"Wait and listen, Remus, darling. All shall be revealed." She responded airily with an evil grin on her face. At that moment, a loud bell rang out and there were the sounds of people falling out of bed and screaming with fright.

"There's nothing like the sound of screaming to wake one up in the morning." Melody grinned at the boys. "Let's get out of here before they come downstairs." She linked arms with James and pointed to the exit, "Onwards."

Sirius and Peter followed, looking at her in awe and Remus was behind them, shaking his head in exasperation. "How did you do it?" James asked interested, he could tell a fellow prankster.

"Mum let me pick out a tonne of books from the store and I found a book that answers any questions you ask it. It's for revision, so you can't debate religion or anything, but I got it once I realized the potential." Melody shrugged and Sirius skipped up behind her and also linked arms with her before he and James proceeded to bombard her with questions. Remus interrupted after a few minutes. "Do any of you know where we are?" He asked hesitantly. The boys all looked at each other in horror while Melody rolled her eyes.

"Yes," she said impatiently while tugging on James and Sirius' arms. "Because I, unlike the rest of you, actually paid attention last night when the prefects told us where everything is." Melody dragged them through one last tapestry and they ended up in the Entrance Hall. "And _that_ is why girls are better than boys."

The four boys looked at her with a mixture of shock and reverence as they all sat down at the Gryffindor table. After fifteen minutes a massive dump of Gryffindors entered and a few of them detached from the group to storm up to McGonagall (who was at that point three metres away from Melody handing out timetables) and complain. Melody and the boys smirked into their breakfast as McGonagall told them she couldn't do anything.

Melody stopped smirking abruptly when one of the girls pointed to her and proclaimed loudly, "I heard her talking this morning. She said she did it."

McGonagall peered at Melody and said, "Miss Song, are these allegations true?

"Would I do such a thing, Minnie?" She asked a bit too innocently. The boys immediately began stuffing their faces so that they could claim plausible deniability (or at least have time to come up with an excuse) if McGonagall turned to them.

"Yes, I believe you would." McGonagall paused and Melody sighed. The Head of Gryffindor took that as a confession and said, "Detention, seven o'clock on Saturday in my office, do not be late."

Melody sighed again and said petulantly, "Yes, Minnie."

McGonagall scowled at her and handed her five timetables with the names of her and the boys on them. "Do not call me that, or do you wish for more detentions?" Melody simply smiled at her and handed out the timetables to the person that they were meant for as McGonagall continued down the table.

"We've got double History of Magic first, that sounds interesting." Melody commented absently.

"It isn't, it really isn't." A girl next to Remus said. "It's taught by a ghost called Binns and he says everything in a monotone and it's all about wars and revolutions. It could actually be interesting if someone else taught it, though. I'm Alice by the way, Alice Prewett."

"I'm Melody. Can you tell us how to get to the classroom? The prefects didn't mention that one last night." Melody said, smiling at the girl and committing her instructions to memory. "Thanks, are Charms and Potions any good? We've got them today too."

"Yeah, they're not bad. Slughorn might try and collect you for his Slug Club if he like you or if you're any good at Potions, so beware." Alice said doubtfully, obviously Slughorn didn't try to 'collect' too many first years.

"I'll try and avoid that then." Melody teased, the girl laughed before bidding her goodbye. Melody turned to the boys, who had managed to finish their food in record time thanks to McGonagall, and opened her mouth to speak when Lily stormed up to her in a rage. "What's this I hear about you being the one to set off that bell this morning?" She practically shouted.

"Well, you see I never actually confirmed or denied the accusation, so I don't know what you're hearing." Melody said calmly, grabbing a piece of toast, Lily deflated. "So you didn't set it off?"

"I never said that." Melody flashed a grin before getting up. "Come on guys; let's get to class on time. I don't know how accurate Alice's directions were."

They left Lily spluttering in rage and walked to the History of Magic classroom with no fuss (obviously Alice knew exactly where everything was in the castle). "Did you see her face?" Sirius laughed as they waited outside the classroom for class to start which would be at nine o'clock. "Do you know how long 'til class starts?"

"Yes I saw her face Sirius, and the time is 8:55, so only five minutes left. You guys never did finish telling me about Quidditch." Melody said slyly, turning to James and Sirius who immediate started talking. Remus wasn't interested, but he paid enough attention to make a few sarcastic comments whereas Peter seemed to hero-worship James and Sirius.

The doors opened at precisely nine o'clock and everyone had arrived in the intervening minutes. Their group all chose a seat up the back with Melody in the middle, Remus on her left and Peter on his left. James was on her right and Sirius was next to him.

Once she was seated, Melody pulled a navy blue quill out of her bag and set it down, feathers in the air, on top of a notebook that she had labelled 'History of Magic'. She held it for half a second before letting go and when it stayed standing, she smiled broadly. James gave her a funny look. "What's that?"

"It's a quill. I charmed it so that it takes notes of relevant details." She responded gleefully. "You would not believe how long it took me to sort out all the kinks. I think there's still a few I haven't found." She shrugged. "It's also got a never ending supply of ink, just dip it in the colour you want and off you go. Though that one was on there when I bought it."

"I didn't think they made those." Sirius remarked, leaning across James to get a better look. "Andy complains about it all the time."

"They don't make them." Melody confirmed. "I invented the spell myself."

Remus gasped quietly. "But that's supposed to be really difficult." He whispered in awe. "My dad told me."

"It's supposed to be," Melody replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "For you normal folk anyway, I, however, am a genius."

"And so modest too," James teased.

"Well, it's not actually a new spell. I just modified the spell that they put on those Dicta-Quills and put my version on a Self-Inked Quill. Of course, the first couple of times the quills exploded but I got there eventually." Melody shrugged dismissively.

Remus did not get a chance to respond as the Professor came in through the blackboard and introduced himself as Binns. Within two minutes the only ones taking notes were Remus and Lily; and Melody of course, but only by default, as her quill scribbled across the page even as her head thunked onto the desk. The Ravenclaws that they shared the lesson with were all taking notes and were glaring at anyone who dared even open their mouths.

James began to snore softly and Sirius nudged him awake. "Here," he muttered, pushing a sheet of parchment towards James.

"What is it?" James murmured curiously, looking at the dashes on the parchment.

"It's Hangman, you moron!" Sirius whispered. The boys spent the rest of the class playing Hangman with Melody occasionally assisting the underdog with the particularly obscure words, to the other boy's despair. The lead had switched often enough that there were no hard feelings and Melody made sure that they parted on a draw.

"Thank goodness we have a break now and thank goodness for my quill." Melody groaned. "If I had to go to another class right now, I'm pretty sure that my brain would dribble out of my ears."

"Lovely imagery," Remus commented.

"Thanks, I thought so too." Melody grinned back at him as Lily chose that moment to storm up to them in a huff.

"You three just couldn't be quiet, could you?" She said sounding so angry that Sirius and James took two steps back. Melody's pride refused to allow her to do that same, so she was left with the full force of Lily's anger. Sirius, being the furthest away and thus the least affected, spoke up. "But Evans, we _were _being quiet."

"No you weren't, I missed out on ten whole minutes of notes." Lily seethed back at him.

"He basically just said word for word what it says in our books. Besides, you could just ask Melody for hers." Sirius was genuinely confused as to the reason that Lily was so angry and, seeing that she would get nowhere, Lily stormed off in a huff. Melody rolled her eyes and whacked him on the back of the head.

"Boys," she muttered as she threw her hands in the air.

"What!?" Sirius, James and Peter looked baffled and Remus just looked amused.

"It's the principal of the thing." Remus responded and then turned to Melody and asked, "Will you give her a copy of your notes? I'd give her mine, but…" He trailed off and held up his noted so she could see his handwriting as an explanation.

"Definitely," Melody said, laughing. "I don't know how you can understand that chicken scratch. My ten-year-old sister writes better than that."

"Oh, what's her name?" Remus asked, looking interested. James and Sirius, not interested in a discussion of her family history, started talking about Quidditch while Peter looked on, awed.

"Her name is Elaina Teagan Parades. My parents adopted me a week after my birth mother died in childbirth. I was named for my mother." Melody informed them.

"Why does you sister have a middle name if you don't?" Sirius asked, butting in on the conversation.

"You already know my middle name. I prefer it to my first name." Melody replied haughtily.

"Tell us." James begged.

"No, you'll just laugh at me." She insisted. "Besides, it doesn't really matter because I'm going to change my name when I'm of age anyway."

There was an awkward pause as no one knew where to take the conversation after that last titbit of information before James suddenly broke the silence a few minutes later as they were following Melody to get to their next class. "You know, if you're adopted your family could be magical."

"Yes, I did. Elaina and I did the tests at Gringotts." Melody skirted the issue, deliberately not mentioning the curious circumstances at the bank. "Actually, I wonder if there are any extenuating circumstances that could result in someone gaining magical abilities." Melody thought aloud.

"You can't take magic from someone else." Sirius disagreed.

"No, I mean like if a Squib was to be in a life-threatening accident or incident then maybe they could manifest magical powers. It'd be an interesting case study if nothing else." She murmured, her mind spinning off and thinking about what kind of research she would need to do. James just shook his head and got on to more important matters.

"So, anyone want to play a prank tonight?" He was practically jumping with joy as he spoke. Melody and Sirius grinned at him as Peter squeaked with excitement. Remus interjected worriedly with, "Are you sure that's wise?"

"Of course not!" Melody spoke with a wide grin decorating her face. "But do you think that's going to stop us? Better to come and make sure we don't get caught!" Remus gave her a look that made her laugh. "You've already capitulated, just say it now and save us the time and trouble."

He sighed, but the eager gleam in his eyes gave him away. "Oh, if I must," he said, feigning reluctance and James laughed as Sirius clapped Remus on the back.

"We have a convert!" James exclaimed and Peter clapped excitedly. "Now, what class do we have next?"

"Ah, Charms I think. Either that or Transfiguration," Melody said as she pulled out her timetable.

"Don't tell us you don't know, what if we've been going to the wrong direction?" Sirius exclaimed.

"It doesn't matter because the Charms Tower is in the same general area as the North Wing which is where Transfiguration is held. In fact, to get to the Charms Tower you have to go through the North Wing." Melody explained patiently.

"So what do we have?" James asked.

"You lazy sods can't even be bothered getting out your own timetables to check and then you rag my butt. We have Charms next, a double period after break which ends in ten minutes anyway." Melody griped to the group in general. James frowned at her timetable and snatched it off her.

"You coloured-coded you timetable!?" He asked horrified. "Don't tell me you're secretly a Ravenclaw bookworm!"

"No I'm not, although I did almost get placed in Ravenclaw and I don't see what's wrong with being a bookworm. Colour-coding your timetable makes sense. It's easily identifiable and I've connected it to my planner so that the lesson blocks turn red if there is incomplete homework due for that class. It only works on a weekly basis, but it's mostly just for double-checking." Melody snatched her timetable back from James while Sirius dug his out of his bag and handed it to her.

"I suppose you three will want me to do yours too?" Melody asked with an indulgent smile. They nodded their assent and handed over their timetables. "I'll see if I can do them during lunch but for now you're stuck trailing after me." She grinned evilly and James gulped dramatically in faux fear.

"Oh no," Sirius said, throwing a hand up to his forehead. "Whatever shall we do?" He cried, spinning around and pretending to faint into James' arms. James wasn't ready for it though and all the boys ended up in a heap on the ground, having brought Remus and Peter down with them. Melody stared at them for a moment before laughing.

"Come on," she said, putting out her hands to James and Remus and helping them up. "If we want to get to class on time them we need to get moving." While she spoke, Melody tried (and failed) to stifle her laughter. She started off ahead of them, leaving James and Remus to help Sirius off of Peter. She was walking backwards laughing when she ran into someone behind her. She turned around saying, "Oh, sorry."

"Watch where you're going, Song," was the snapped reply. Sirius and James glared at the person behind her.

"Snivellus," Sirius jeered over Melody's shoulder. James made a derogatory noise of acknowledgement too.

"Guys, lay off him." Melody berated James and Sirius without turning around. "I've still got your cloak, by the way. I'll be in the library if you want to get it after dinner." Melody mentioned blithely and passed by him, calling over her shoulder as she went. "Have a nice day."

She walked on, expecting the boys to follow her. She was not, however, expecting James and Sirius to pull out their wands and disarm Snape before he could finish pulling out his wand to defend himself; Sirius then locked his legs together with the Leg-Locker Curse. Both spells that Melody had taught them on the train.

"_Expelliarmus_!James! Sirius! Stop it now!" She exclaimed at the top of her voice as she caught ass three wands in one hand and performed the counter-curse on Snape. She glanced warily at Snape. "If I throw your wand to you, will you hex them?" She asked cautiously.

He paused to think before shaking his head. Melody smiled gratefully at him and tossed his wand over, though her hand stayed wrapped tightly round her own wand. Snape sneered at them all before storming off. '_Probably plotting his revenge,_' Melody assumed, thinking it equitable.

She rounded on the two boys sniggering behind her once Snape had left them alone in the corridor and she took a good look at everyone standing behind her. Remus looked extremely awkward and uncomfortable, Peter looked torn between being amused and disapproving and the other two looked proud of their efforts. She advanced on them, their wands and hers in a tight grasp and growled angrily at them, "How dare you!? That was completely cruel and uncalled for."

The boys took a step back once faced with the true extent of her anger. "It was just a bit of fun." Sirius protested. Melody sighed and her anger deflated.

"Fine, just don't do it again Come on, we need to leave for Charms or we'll be late. We've only got two minutes." Melody smiled at them and handed back James' and Sirius' wand.

"Do you know what we'll be learning today?" Remus asked Melody, breaking the tension and cutting through the awkward silence. Melody didn't pause before responding, "We'll only be doing theory today. I think we're going to be learning about the Levitation Charm."

"Well, that sounds boring." Sirius stated after a few seconds silence; everyone laughed and their conversation continued in that fashion until they reached the classroom. They had this class with the Hufflepuffs and when they entered the room all of sat down quietly.

Flitwick started the class by taking the roll, which he finished quickly. "Right," the small man said happily to his new class of first-years. "Today we will be learning about the Levitation Charm. Can anyone tell me the incantation for this spell?"

"_Wingardium leviosa_," Melody said when Flitwick called on her.

"Excellent work, Miss Song, ten points to Gryffindor," Flitwick squeaked excitedly before continuing with the lesson. By the time the end of class came around, Melody had earned another 30 points for Gryffindor.

"When she and the boys were on their way to Potions, they saw that Gryffindor was in the lead by 60 points. They all high-fived each other as they continued down to the dungeons and the House Cup was the topic of loud conversation all the way there.

When they arrived, they saw the Slytherins waiting outside the door as Slughorn had not finished his previous class. The Slytherins were leaning against one wall and the Gryffindors were up against the opposite one.

"Oh look, it's the Mudbloods." Crouch sneered as the group approached. Sirius and James went for their wands but Remus grabbed their arms and shook his head. Melody glared at him and asked rhetorically, "Honestly, are you that pathetic that you have to insult other people to have any kind of self-worth?"

Crouch scowled back at her and licked his lips a few times. "Not going to protect your friends, blood traitors?" He recovered by lashing out at James and Sirius.

"Have you wizards even _heard _of proving a point? Well obviously not otherwise you wouldn't be proving mine for me!" Melody answered her rhetorical question. Crouch couldn't retaliate to her comment because Slughorn chose that moment to let his previous class go. The Slytherins and Gryffindors walked into the room when he called and they split themselves into their houses; the Slytherins on the left side of the room closest to the door and the Gryffindors on the right closest to the store room.

Slughorn waddled into the room and stood at the front, beaming genially at them all. "Okay everyone let me explain how I run my classroom and classes."

The Potions' Professor then proceeded to explain the rules (no running, no experimenting, use common sense, etc.) and that Monday's classes would be used to go over the potion that they would be making in Tuesday's lesson and Wednesday's class would cover the potion they would make in Thursday's lesson.

He then started explaining the potion that they would be making that week (Burn Paste) and set them four inches to be written on the history and use of the potion, due on Wednesday. During the lecture he managed to slip in several references to something he called the 'Slug Club' which was apparently invitation only.

The group walked out of the classroom and sprinted a few corridors down before bursting into laughter, Peter lagging a bit behind the rest of them. "Merlin's beard, did you see his moustache!?" Sirius cried while the other four shrieked with laughter.

"It moved every time he spoke!" Melody exclaimed after several minutes were spent by all of them trying to recover. "I don't think I'll be able to join his club if he asks me. I'll burst into laughter before we're halfway through!"

They continued laughing all the way to the Great Hall despite Remus' half-hearted protests. After stumbling into their seats and eating, Peter asked, "What do we have now?"

"It's Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. What kind of stuff do we learn about in Herbology, anyway?" Melody asked in a voice that might as well have had a fanfare announcing the impending hatred it was so obvious.

"It's actually rather fun." Alice answered from where she was standing behind James and Sirius and opposite Remus, Melody and Peter. She slid in next to James, forcing him to squish up against Sirius.

"Yeah but you're the earthy type, aren't you?" Melody reasoned. "Those people who have a green thumb and somehow derive joy from working in a garden."

"That's me," Alice grinned happily making everyone laugh and Melody managed to hold onto a pout before being forced to give it up as a bad job as the laughter escaped her mouth.

"Anyway," Sirius spoke once everyone had calmed down enough to listen. "It's our last class of the day and then we can relax."

"No we can't, Sirius." Remus said resignedly He had already realised the uselessness of what he was going to say. "We have History of Magic _and _Potions homework."

"Yeah, and the History of Magic stuff is due the day after next. Eight bloody inches on the Goblin Rebellion of 1483! It's ridiculous." Melody finished for him.

"Eight inches by Wednesday! That's criminal!" James cried, outraged.

"And that's why we're going to get started on it tonight." Melody said determinedly.

"There's no point in refusing, is there?" Sirius asked rhetorically.

"None at all," Melody replied cheerfully. "You guys go on to Herbology. I'm going to go drop off all my notes and folders. I'll see you there."

She ran all the way up there, only stopping to wheeze out the password to the portrait. She quickly organised her stuff, putting it all into her bag while she stumbled down the stairs and sprinted off, catching up with everyone halfway to the Greenhouses.

"Are we on time?" She gasped out, clambering onto Sirius' back to be carried the rest of the way.

"Yes," Remus responded at the same time as Sirius exclaimed, "Get off me!"

"No, I'm tired and out of breath." Melody replied as firmly as she could while still wheezing. "And unless you want to wait for me…"

Sirius grudgingly agreed to carry her to the Greenhouses at the threat and they met their teacher, Professor Sprout, just outside. She explained the plants held in every Greenhouse and introduced them to that week's project which was due on Friday. Their project for that week was to get into groups of five and research a plant held in Greenhouse One which they would be assigned by the Professor. Melody dragged Peter into their group and, after getting their piece of paper with the words, 'Devil's Snare' written on it, they began to walk back to the castle.

"Alright, after dinner we'll go to the library to finish our History homework and maybe start on the Potions stuff. Then we can sit down and prepare for the prank we're going to pull off tonight. _But_," here she paused to glare at them, especially James and Sirius," we do it _after _homework."

"Alright, alright!" Sirius exclaimed, throwing his hands up in surrender at the sight of the glare being directed at him.

"Good, come on Remus. I want to talk to you about Trivil the Trustworthy." Melody beckoned Remus to walk beside her and James raced to catch up.

"But I thought Trivil wasn't trustworthy?" He asked, confused.

"Yes, that's the whole point. They wanted their enemies to think he was trustworthy. Because goblins generally aren't trustworthy so if they name their leader as such then their enemies will believe it too. They just forgot one thing."

"What thing?"

"They forgot that goblins aren't trustworthy so when they called their leader trustworthy they were lying." Melody replied.

"Se they named him that to mislead their enemies? That's pretty smart." James said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, it was," Remus agreed before adding, "Or at least it was, until they forgot he wasn't trustworthy and robbed them all blind."

"I had no idea history was so interesting." James enthused.

"It's not the way Binns teaches it. I can help you with it if you like?" Melody offered. Sirius perked up and she sighed, speaking before he could even open his mouth. "Yes Sirius, _all_ of you."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. First we must do something else." James announced loudly as they entered the Entrance Hall.

"Oh? Pray do tell." Melody drawled with one eyebrow raised.

"Dinner!" He and Sirius cried out as they rushed into the Great hall.

"Oh, for goodness' sake," Melody sighed as she, Remus and Peter followed the other two into the Hall at a more sedate pace. Remus laughed as he sat down next to James with Melody on his right and Sirius and Peter I front of him. They talked mostly about the classes they'd had that day and what they'd thought of their teachers.

The general consensus was that McGonagall shouldn't be crossed but wouldn't mind a few pranks, Slughorn wouldn't care either way and wasn't a very good teacher anyway, Binns was absolutely rubbish and couldn't care less if a bomb went off in his class, Sprout and Flitwick were both friendly and would enjoy any pranks and Dumbledore would probably just augh.

"So what should we do for our prank?" Sirius asked once he finally surface from his plate, putting down a chicken bone.

"Nothing that targets specific houses," Melody gave James and Sirius pointed looks to emphasis her statement.

"Fine, we won't pick on the slimy Slytherins." Sirius grumbled reluctantly.

"Good," Melody replied carelessly. "All done?"

Everyone agreed and they trooped up the library to get started on their homework.

* * *

"Shh!" James hissed as Peter stumbled over a loose stone and tripped into a suit of armour.

"Sorry," Peter whispered back. Melody whipped around from the front of the group and glared at them. They shrank back and shut up.

Sirius was at the library putting up a sign that declared, 'The library is closed indefinitely. We apologise for any inconvenience.' Remus was meant to go with Sirius but had begged off to go to the Hospital Wing claiming that he felt sick.

Melody had not liked that joke at all but Sirius had pointed out that neither would the Ravenclaws, which was the whole idea. Remus had also been against it until James had reasoned that the entire library would be empty as a result. Melody had sulked, glaring at the turncoat all through that planning of the second prank.

James and Peter had sussed out the location earlier and they were placing the official-looking sign in a corridor before the bend in the L-shaped corridor that was the only entrance to the library.

Teachers never came down that particular passage, according to one confused older Hufflepuff, and Madam Pince had quarters just off the library itself and she almost never appeared in the Great Hall for meals. This meant that the deception should last well into the next day and possibly into the one after that.

While Sirius was off doing that, Melody, James and Peter were heading to the Owlery to deliver a 'surprise gift' that would be delivered straight to the targeted common rooms when everyone was expected to be in and not out wandering the corridors

There was nothing harmful in the package; except maybe to the recipients' pride and ego.

"I hope we get that pompous git, Malfoy." James said eagerly, already imagining the look on the boy's face.

"Yes well, if we don't hurry back to the common room then we're going to be the ones '_got_'." Melody hissed, glancing around the doorjamb to check the outside hallway.

Peter squeaked in fear at the thought and whispered though his hands, "What if they take points off?"

"Better question," Melody muttered back, "What if they give us a detention? They'll probably take ten points of each of us, twenty at the most."

"Eh, it's not that big of a deal. It's just a detention." James responded callously.

"Well quiet down so they _don't_!" Melody whipped around from where she was leading the group to snarl and James in a whisper. "My parents are Muggles and they will not be impressed to learn that I got a detention on my second night here."

"Alight, alright, don't bite my head off." James said defensively, putting his hands up in a gesture of appeasement.

"We're almost there," Melody replied apologetically. They travelled in silence the rest of the way back to the common room.

"So how did you go?" Sirius pounced on them almost before they got through the portrait hole.

He had gotten back before them because the library was fairly central to all four Houses, although it was slightly closer to the Ravenclaw common room than the others ("conforming to integral societal stereotypes and generalisations" Melody had commented when she had read that little titbit in _Hogwarts: a History_").

However someone obviously considered the Owlery less important as the other three children had had to walk down to the fifth floor and then up almost to the top of the Astronomy Tower where the Owlery was located in a large room, a floor below the Observation Platform that made up the very top of the tall tower.

"We did alright. No peep of any prefects or teachers." James responded to Sirius' inquiries flippantly before turning it back on him. "What about you?"

"I was almost caught by that poncy Slytherin git Malfoy and his partner." Sirius scowled.

"How'd you get away?" James asked between his hoots of laughter.

"I had to back-track into the library and hide in the history section for twenty-five minutes," Sirius complained loudly, "And then that git Filch almost got me so I had to take the long route and then I got lost and I had to back-track _again_ and I just got back before you guys." Sirius finished before gasping for breath.

"Why didn't you ask the portraits for help?" Melody asked amused. Sirius opened his mouth to respond and scowled forcefully for a while before laughing along with the rest of them.

"Okay, it's getting late so we all need to go to bed." Melody announced

"Getting late?" James exclaimed with a grin. "It's 3 o'clock in the morning! Try 'getting early'!"

"Ha ha," Melody intoned drily, "goodnight everyone."

"Goodnight," the boys said together as everyone headed to their respective dormitories.

40


	4. First Year 4

**A/N: Yes I know most of the scenes are really short but that's because I'm honestly seriously bored of first-year so I'm powering through it. The reason I'm writing so much is because I also want to establish their characters and their relationships with each other as early as possible so I can do a lot of character development that otherwise wouldn't mean anything.**

**Now, my version of Melody's letter actually has a different font which isn't showing up on either this site or , so if anyone knows how to change the font type on this site then please let me know. Otherwise I'll be putting up all the chapters on Tumblr with the proper font when I'm done. If you want a copy of the original letter then just let me know.**

**The descriptions for the House traits for the letter are pulled straight off the Pottermore Wikia and so is the description for the classes.**

* * *

_3__rd__ September_

"Have you heard?" Melody said, plopping herself down into the seat next to Peter in the Great Hall.

It was only the second day of classes and already the OWL and NEWT students were complaining about the course load. Melody had, of course, already finished her homework after class with Remus in the library while James and Sirius had sat next to them and quietly stared at other students forcefully to freak them out. It had worked marvellously too with one seventh-year Ravenclaw snapping spectacularly and running while screaming towards the two boys as if to attack before Madam Pince set upon him.

"Heard what?" Remus asked as he piled up his plate with meats.

"They've put up a sign-up sheet for some extra-curricular classes and stuff. The timetable's up next to it too." Melody explained as she filled her own plate and stole a potato chip off James' plate.

"Oi!" He exclaimed, batting at her hand and missing. She grinned at him smugly as she put it in her mouth.

"Do you remember what's on it?" Remus asked.

"I don't need to," she said, reaching into her pocket. "I got one of the older students to make a copy for me."

She laid it out on the table and they all leaned in to look. James and Sirius immediately started talking to each other, so Melody turned to Remus and Peter.

"What are you guys going to do?" She asked cheerfully, ignoring the stab of hurt from the two boys ignoring her.

"I don't think I'll have the time to try any of them." Peter said mournfully.

"Really? I don't think so." Melody replied flippantly. A bit of fun every week is more likely to motivate you to do your homework and do better, as well."

"Do you really think so?" He asked hopefully.

"Yeah of course, what do you want to do?"

"Art looks good," Peter said, considering his options, "Music too… and maybe the Gobstones Club." By the end of his little spiel, Peter sounded almost cheerful.

"Which art?" Remus said, looking at the page. "You can do Muggle or Magical- or both if you want."

"I think I'd like to do both?" Peter said, he voice ticking up at the end and making it into a question.

"Yes or no? Be confidant, Peter! No one can tell you that you can or can't do these classes." Melody sounded impatient and sharp as she addressed Peter.

"Yes, I'd like to do both." Peter said, sounding a bit surer of himself.

"Good," Melody looked pleased. "What are you looking at signing up for, Remus?"

"I've always liked playing Gobstones, and I'm pretty good at it, so I'll probably join the Gobstones Club and I'm interested in Ghoul Studies… and maybe the Transfiguration Club too." Remus replied, still musing over the list.

"You'll probably be doing Ghoul Studies by yourself. It's taught by Binns." Melody said, amused, as she pointed at the name written beside the class.

Remus shrugged, "That's alright."

Melody nodded to acknowledge his response before turning to James and Sirius with a wicked grin on her face.

"What are you two old ladies muttering about?" Melody ribbed James and Sirius good-naturedly.

"Working out how many we can take together." James replied before going back to his discussion with Sirius. Melody shrugged her shoulders at them again she felt hurt by their continued exclusion before she turned back to Remus and Peter. "Whatever," she said as she rolled her eyes.

"What were you planning on doing?" Peter asked her.

"Everything I can, the Charms and Transfiguration Clubs, definitely. Magical Art, too, because I'd like to be able to make moving paintings. Music as well as I'd like to know the difference between Muggle and Magical. That'd be it for this year, though. I don't want to commit myself to too many classes because we can sign up for more in third-year because of the extra elective classes and there's a heap available for fourth- and fifth-year."

"Really?" Remus asked while Peter sat there looking worried.

"Yep," Melody replied as she finally dug into her plate of food.

"D'you reckon those two know?" Remus questioned thoughtfully.

"Nope."

* * *

_4__th__ September_

"Ghoul Studies! Why are you doing _Ghoul Studies_?" Melody heard Sirius cry as the boys thundered down from their dormitory.

"Because it seems interesting, that's why." Remus replied calmly, walking through the doors into the common room. Sirius gaped and made wild gestures around his head as they walked through the common room with everyone looking at them.

Melody raised her eyebrow at Peter, who was trailing the other three boys from the dormitory.

"What was that about?" She asked him as they turned to follow the others down to breakfast.

"James and Sirius found out that Remus is doing Ghoul Studies instead of something else." Peter answered mournfully.

"Seriously?" Melody asked rhetorically, raising her eyebrow again.

Peter nodded in response and Melody whistled through her teeth incredulously.

"Geez, and how did it turn into _that_?" She muttered.

"Sirius got offended that Remus didn't want to do something with them and Remus said that it only clashed with Music which he didn't want to do anyway. So both of them were angry at each other and James took Sirius' side, so now all three of them are angry." Peter told her all of this very quickly, looking around to make sure the boys weren't coming back.

"Really?" Melody sighed, tipping her head back to look at the ceiling and closing her eyes in weariness. Peter nodded miserably in response. "Bloody hell!"

She groaned and said, "We better go and stop them killing each other, then."

They both trudged down to breakfast, making sure to keep well enough back that they weren't drawn into the continuing argument. All through breakfast the two of them tried to mediate between the group of boys until Sirius finally seemed to get over it.

"Snape," Melody hissed, keeping an eye on Madam Pince to make sure she wouldn't get thrown out of the library.

The Slytherin whipped around so fast that Melody almost got whiplash just watching him. His wand was already out of his pocket and a spell on his lips before he caught sight for her and scowl instead of finishing the curse.

"What do you want?" He snapped loud enough for Madam Pince to quiet him with a venomous glare. He subdued under her look but the scowl reformed the moment the Librarian turned to quell the fourth-years in the History section that had the audacity to breathe slightly too close to her precious books.

"I'm here to return your cloak since you haven't come and gotten it off me but if you don't want it…" She deliberately trailed off to see if he would apologise.

He didn't

"Fine, give it here then." He put out a hand, expecting her to hand it over. Melody hesitated.

"Only if you tell me why you were prepared to curse me," she bargained. Snape glared at her for a while, trying to determine the best course of action, before muttering, ""You sound like James Potter."

"I- what?" She said, startled.

"Your voice – it sounds like Potter's. He hissed slightly louder. It was apparently too loud for Madam Pince because she glared him submission again.

"What- You- I- Did you just tell me I sound like a guy?" Melody sputtered angrily causing Pince's glare to transfer over to her. She mouthed an apology and they both waited until the Dragon had focused her attention elsewhere before continuing their hushed argument.

"You caught me by surprise." Snape muttered with a snarl.

"They've been hexing you in the corridors again, haven't they?" Melody asked rhetorically. "I'll have another talk with them but I don't know what good it will do. Why don't you talk to Slughorn? He is your head of House, isn't he?"

Snape scowled at her in response and Melody's eyes widened in realisation. "He doesn't care, does he?"

Snape just continued to scowl at her.

"Look, I can't help you if you don't tell me what they're doing." She whispered forcefully as he began to pack up his belongings. She followed him out of the library but refrained from speaking until they were well into the outside corridor.

"Let me help you!" She napped once they were out from underneath the Dragon's judgemental gaze.

"I don't need your help, mudblood!" He growled back at her. She caught his eye under the pretence of glaring at him over the insult and attempted a deeper mind scan than what she had done to Remus.

She couldn't get in.

To be more specific, she ran up against an impenetrable mental wall; and apparently, it had nerves.

"What the hell did you just do?!" He practically roared. He grabbed her arm and dragged her into a nearby classroom.

"What do you mean, 'what did I do?'" Melody bluffed, trying to pull her arm out of his grasp and ailing. "I didn't do anything." She had to stifle the scream that tried to escape her as all her muscles began to contract painfully at the falsehood.

"Liar," he growled.

"Alright fine, I did something." She snapped; her body relaxing suddenly at the truth. "But what the hell did you do? It's like I hit a wall at full speed."

"You can do Legilimency," Snape breathed in shock.

"What?" Melody frowned, confused and not liking it.

"You're a natural Legilimens." Snape explained. "A- mind reader," he elaborated peevishly at her blank look.

"Yes, thank you, I knew that much. What can you do?"

"I'm a natural Occlumens." Snape replied after a moment of hesitation. "It means I can block attacks like yours."

Melody nodded in understanding before frowning suddenly. "So, if we're natural Occlumens and Legilimens, does that mean there's such a thing as an 'unnatural' Legilimens or Occlumens?"

"Yes, you can learn to do either." Snape replied evenly, staring at her suspiciously.

"Can you teach me Occlumency?" Melody asked quickly, grabbing onto his arm.

"No," he snapped out, wrenching his arm out of her grip and moving to walk away.

"I'll teach you Legilimency." Melody called out after him.

He paused and they stared at each other before Snape finally spoke.

"Okay, but my House can't know."

"Alright," she agreed immediately. "When will we meet?"

"A weekend," Snape stipulated.

"Sunday afternoon?" Melody asked.

"Sunday afternoon?" Melody asked.

"I won't be free until the 22nd." Snape said flatly.

"Why?"

Snape merely raised an eyebrow and Melody sighed. 'Fine, 2pm in the library?"

"No, the spare classroom two doors down from the Charms' classroom."

"Alright, see you there, Snape."

Snape merely nodded his head in farewell and walked off.

* * *

_6__th__ September_

Dear Mum, Dad and Elaina

Hogwarts is absolutely massive. I've just started writing this n the library after I finished the homework that my friends are still doing. The school is absolutely amazing.

I was Sorted into Gryffindor with my friends (James, Sirius, Remus and Peter) and I'm having loads of fun. There are four Houses at Hogwarts and they are named after the Founders of the school. You are Sorted into your House based on the traits that you value within yourself and I won't spoil how you get Sorted for Elaina – maybe she'll actually pick up a book to find out. Gryffindors are associated with daring, bravery, nerve and chivalry; Hufflepuffs are associated with trustworthiness, loyalty and a strong work ethic; Ravenclaws are associated with cleverness, wisdom, wit and creativity; and Slytherin are associated with cunning, ambition and a tendency to look after their own.

The homework is absolutely fascinating and I'm finding it hard not to write over two feet when the teachers are only asking for five inches. The library is absolutely massive and Sirius had to drag me out for dinner the other day. I almost missed it and if he'd gotten me two minutes later, I wouldn't have gotten anything to eat at all.

Transfiguration, the art of changing the form or appearance of an object, is my favourite subject. The teacher is Professor McGonagall; she's the one who came to the house to give me my letter. She's very strict but she's an amazing teacher. I love the way she explains the concepts. It's very different from the textbook but in a good way. My next favourite class would have to be Charms, the art of giving objects new and unexpected properties. It's taught by Professor Flitwick, who I think is even shorter than I am. I love the theory behind everything and the way he teaches.

I love it here so far if you can't tell, even though the girls in my dorm can be really catty, especially Lily Evans. I don't know if she doesn't like that I'm smarter than her or if it's because of our pranks. I'm mean, it doesn't really matter. I just keep out of her way more often than not.

The extra-curricular classes look like they're going to be lots of fun too. I've signed up for the Charms and Transfiguration Clubs as well as Magical Art and Music. I haven't signed up for all of them (like I wanted to) because we get offered more in a couple of years and I don't want to have to abandon a group if something else clashes. I'm starting to meet up with a couple of the other people from the clubs I'm joining to just in case I absolutely cannot get along with them. I'm also doing some stuff with a boy from Slytherin called Snape.

Peter, one of my friends that I mentioned before, is having a bit of trouble with his spellwork. I've been trying to help but I just don't know how to explain it to him in a way he'll understand. I've tried using real-life examples but I don't know enough about the wizarding world to assist in that area so Remus has taken over.

James and Sirius both come from pureblood families (families that have been purely magical for many generations) and they've had tutors since a young age so everything is revision for them and probably will be until at least third-year. This is completely unfair to us muggleborns because we come to Hogwarts with little to no knowledge of the culture and background information and it's also unfair to the purebloods because they are basically revising any private tutoring they may have had at home.

I've already ranted about this to James and Sirius but they just laughed and said it was okay by them because it meant they didn't have to pay attention in class. Remus agreed with me, though. We've had quite a few discussions about it over the past three days and I've resolved to find out how the Ministry of Magic detects muggleborns.

I'm also meeting up with a Slytherin boy in my year, Severus Snape, to learn Occlumency (which is basically the opposite of what I can do) and in return I teach him my mind trick which is apparently called Legilimency here.

Also, no one can do magic without a wand, either. I don't know why so I'm doing some research into it and I haven't told anyone yet, including my friends, and I don't plan to for a while yet. At least until I have all the information about what's going on. I've talking to Professor McGonagall about submitting it as a long-term research project and so, after much discussion, I now have access to the Restricted Section, but only for things relating to my research. I think I may use it to take out books relating to Legilimency and Occlumency because they are a type of wandless magic and there are no books available on them in the normal section of the library.

The only downside about going here is that we have to write with parchment and quills. I'm currently writing with a normal pen I brought with me because I still can't get used to writing with a feather from a bird. The stationery is abhorrently archaic enough that I may actually just purchase a fountain pen over the holidays because it's not like the teachers will be able to tell the difference. I talked to James about this though and apparently we have to use quills in our final exams: the Ordinary Wizarding Levels (O.W.L.s) and Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests (N.E.W.T.s) so I'm a bit torn. Maybe I'll buy a couple of those primers they give to children over the summer so I can practice. It's worth a try.

How's life back at home going? Is Elaina enjoying school? Not getting too much homework, I hope. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to send this letter. I've just been caught up with everything since the Sorting.

I hope you are all doing well.  
Melody

* * *

_22__nd__ September_

"I don't _care _if you find it fun! It's annoying for everyone else." Lily cried as she stalked Melody down the corridor to dinner.

"Well _I_ don't care if _you _find it annoying. It's not _my_ problem!" Melody snapped in response.

"Argh!" Lily screamed in impotent rage.

"Look, if it's that much of an issue for you then frankly you're the one who needs to be the one to deal with it." Melody said with the air of one who was repeating themselves for the umpteenth time.

Lily let out another loud cry before storming off into the Great Hall. Melody shrugged at the world in general before walking into the hall as well.

"Over here," Sirius called out needlessly as Melody walked in the direction of her friends. She ignored his greeting and sat down next to Remus instead.

"She's so annoying!" Melody hissed to Remus.

"What?" Remus asked, bemused.

When Melody opened her mouth to explain, Remus interrupted to ask, "No, actually who is it first?"

"Lily Evans," Melody growled.

"Ah," Remus said in realisation. "And how has she offended you now?"

"She keeps ragging on me about our pranks! They aren't hurting anyone and we're not singling anyone out!" Melody snarled as she stabbed at the food on her plate which had been loaded by Remus while she was ranting.

"Have you tried telling her this?" Remus suggested hesitantly.

"Yes," Melody retorted. "But she won't listen!"

Remus tries to think of something to say in response to this but Melody spoke again before he could.

"It would serve her right if I did stop helping with the pranks and let James and Sirius go wild." She muttered so vehemently that Remus winced.

"That wouldn't be fair to the Slytherins, though." Remus counselled softly. "Especially Snape," he added when she showed no sign of bending. Melody flinched at that that and hesitated, thinking it over.

"You wouldn't let them bully the other children, would you?" Remus cajoled when he saw her begin to reconsider.

"Oh, fine then!" Melody snapped, relenting. "You sweet-talking bloody manipulator."

Remus smiled innocently at her, making her laugh in startled amusement. She picked her fork back up and began actually eating her food instead of attempting to murder it.

"Oi," Sirius cried from a bit further down the table, "You two mopes going to join us, then?"

"Alright, alright," Melody called back, "Keep your hair on. You just wish we were over there, making the very atmosphere cooler with our very presence." She turned to Remus and said quietly, "Thank, Remus." Then she picked up her plate and moved further down the table to join Sirius and James.

Remus was left laughing behind her before he too joined the rest of the group.

"Okay, so I pulled all these books out of the library." Melody announced, dumping around ten (very large) books and another four thinner ones onto the disused teacher's desk in the spare classroom they were using for their meetings.

"Where did you _get_ these?" Snape asked as he picked up one of the books called _Exploring the Mind: Part 3 – Undetected Assaults'_ in shock.

"In the library," Melody replied dismissively.

"Half of these books are from the Restricted Section." Snape said suspiciously.

"Yep," Melody gave a grin before turning back to the books. After a while of Snape just staring at her, she snapped, "Are you just going to sit there staring at me or are you going to start looking through some of them? These ones are the most helpful for learning Legilimency, I think."

"Have you read all of these already?" Snape asked in stunned amazement.

"I took a quick look through the ones that teach Legilimency so I have a better idea of how to instruct you or if I even could. Apparently normal children and in most cases teenagers too can't learn it so early in their mental development however because you're a natural Occlumens you should be able to lean if you apply yourself."

Melody then handed Snape a book, titled _Intricacies of the Mind,_ which he accepted cautiously.

"I'll explain to you what it is I do when I perform Legilimency and different things you could try. Then next meeting we can discuss which one you pick after reading up on the subject and you can do the same for me. Do you agree?" Melody asked carelessly. Snape looked as though he had been steam-rolled. "Sure," he replied after a few seconds of stunned silence.

"Excellent, shall we start now?" Melody beamed. Snape nodded in response causing Melody to immediately launch into an explanation.

* * *

_12__th__ October_

"Miss Song, the Headmaster would like to see you in his office." McGonagall had approached the Gryffindor table at lunch to request Melody's presence for Dumbledore.

"Now?" She asked, confused.

"Yes – come with me, please." The Deputy Headmistress waited until Melody had risen from her seat on the bench and then strode down the length of the Great Hall. They walked in silent awkwardness until a gargoyle on the seventh floor that McGonagall spoke to.

"Droobles' Best Blowing Gum," she said with a straight face while Melody laughed soundlessly.

"Is that a regular thing, then?" Melody asked when she could trust herself not to cackle madly.

"Yes," the professor replied, sounding only very slightly annoyed. Melody grinned to herself as they reached the top of the spiral staircase.

"Come in," the Headmaster called through the door before either of them could knock. Melody pushed the door open and walked into the room.

"You requested me, Headmaster?" She queried, perplexed.

"Yes, my dear. I've heard from Professor McGonagall that you have begun a research task into wandless magic." He said with a genial smile.

"I'm finding it very interesting, too." Melody responded brightly. She kept her anxiety at where the conversation was going tightly under wraps. "If this is about the books I borrowed from the Restricted Section then I have permission as long as they're relevant to my research topic."

Dumbledore smiled at her reassuringly. "No, don't fret about that, dear girl. I wanted to talk to you about your school work."

"Is there something wrong?" She interrupted worriedly.

"The exact opposite, in fact." Dumbledore told her cheerfully. "It has been suggested by a number of your teachers that you are advanced enough in your understanding as well as practical application of magical theory that you could take your end of year exams now and instead begin attending classes with the second-years and sit those exams either in June with everyone else or, indeed, when you feel ready. I'm afraid that the earliest you can take your O.W.L.s is when you are fourteen years of age. However I believe that, for you, is in September of 1973?"

"Yes, that's right." Melody paused for a second to consider something while the Headmaster waited patiently. "Would I have to join the second-year dorm?"

"Only if you wanted to." He answered.

"Why are you offering me this opportunity?" Melody asked suspiciously.

"Because you show great promise and a desire to succeed," he said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Why not fast track anyone else? James and Sirius know just as much as I do, if not more." Melody asked shrewdly, watching the old man warily and contemplating Legilimency.

"Their knowledge comes from growing up with magic and private tutors in their youth." Dumbledore smiled which was what finally convinced Melody to invade his mind as he continued speaking. "I know you wish to keep your friends with you as you grow up but sometimes people grow apart because they cannot-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt what I'm sure would have been a very pretty speech meant to manipulate me into agreeing with you," Melody announced as she stood up to leave, "but I have no desire to become your political role model. You want to make me into you muggleborn poster girl. You want me to succeed so you can hold me up to the purebloods and say, 'Look, look at what a muggleborn can do, can succeed at when they try, know how much better than they can be than your children,' and you're hoping that this will convince them to accept us Muggle-raised into your society but it will never work. It will engender fear and hatred of us and I despise that you have tried to do this to me assuming that I would not work out what you were planning. Do you think me a fool, Headmaster?"

"Ah, I see. You suspect me of ulterior motives." Dumbledore ignored the question and went to keep talking before he was cut off.

"Headmaster, I _know_ you have ulterior motives and I will not be a political statement or figurehead." Melody stated firmly, standing in front of the door. "I will continue with my independent projects and I will talk to my professors if I require additional work to keep myself occupied. Good day, sir."

Melody walked down the spiral staircase in a cold fury and stormed past the gargoyle wrathfully, ignoring Dumbledore's attempts to call her back.

"What's crawled up your nose, mudblood?" Lucius Malfoy drawled. "Finally worked out your inferiority to us purebloods?"

"For your information, Malfoy, I've just come from the Headmaster's office where I turned down as offer to take the first-year final exams and skip to second-year. So how about you start pondering your own inferiority compared to me." Melody replied coldly, pushing past the Slytherin prefect and striding down the corridor to locate her friends. She found them in the Gryffindor Common Room talking quietly in a corner.

"That-That-That- blibbering politically-obsessed old fool!" She burst out once she'd sat down in an armchair next to Remus.

"Are you talking about the Headmaster?" Remus asked, shocked.

"Yes," Melody replied through clenched teeth. "He tried to make me into a political statement and put me on a pedestal as the perfect little muggleborn."

"Hold on, what are you talking about?" James interrupted her rant with a raised voice. Melody explained her conversation with Dumbledore coldly.

"How do you know he didn't just want to help you?" Remus questioned once she was done.

"I just do," Melody replied after hesitating for a second. Sirius just stared at her while the others began to complain loudly. After almost a minute of this he spoke softly, interrupting the ongoing argument. "You can do Legilimency, can't you?"

"And if I can?" Melody spoke staring him straight in the eye. He just shrugged in response not caring either way.

"What!? You can't be a Legilimens at eleven!" James cried.

"Yes I can. Besides," Melody said to him amusedly, "I'm actually twelve."

"What's a Legilimens?" Peter interrupted shyly. James looked a bit annoyed at the disruption but Sirius forestalled any complaints by explaining it quickly.

"It's basically someone who can read other people's minds." He clarified, turning back Melody and therefore missing the look of discomfort that appeared on the other boy's face.

"Anyway, people who are able to do the Mind Arts…" James trailed off as he tried to mentally phrase his next sentence delicately. "They're normally really badly abused." Sirius finished for him bluntly.

"Oh… I didn't know that." Melody murmured thinking of Snape. She hastily added, "I wasn't," when she saw the boys' faces. She elucidated further when none of them looked convinced. "My guardians have never abused me. They may have been slightly neglectful in the social and disciplinary aspects because they didn't know how to cope with my extreme intelligence but they never abused me. I've just always been able to do it." She shrugged her shoulders to further emphasise her lack of knowledge regarding her mystery power.

"But wouldn't Dumbledore be an accomplished Occlumens?" James questioned, frowning in confusion.

"Yeah probably but it wouldn't matter. Natural Legilimency beats learned occlumency and natural occlumency beats both types of legilimency." Sirius responded. "What?" He asked uncomfortably when he saw the suspicious looks Remus and James were giving him. "My parents made sure that my brother and me…"

"…had a well-rounded pre-Hogwarts education?" Melody finished much more tactfully than Sirius had for James.

"Yeah," he said gratefully.

"Well that's all fine, but the Ministry won't take this well." James told them grimly.

"They hate natural Legilimens because you can't be defended against." Sirius agreed. "Especially given you're a muggleborn." He added quietly. "You can't tell anyone, at all. If the Ministry finds out about this then you'll just disappear and no one will ever hear from you again."

"Ominous much," Melody said, attempting to disguise her fear.

"I'm not joking." Sirius said firmly, no trace of his normal good humour. "It's happened before. It gets hushed up and no one looks too closely at it because pretty much the only ones who have these kinds of abilities are muggleborns and Muggle-raised half-bloods because abuse is so rare in the magical world."

"Alright, I won't tell anyone!" Melody cried, throwing her hands up to indicate her surrender.

There was silence for a little while after that because no one knew that to say after Sirius' foreboding declaration and the forcible reminder of his family background.

At least until James broke the silence with, "Wait, you're twelve!?"

"Well yeah," Melody replied. "I had my birthday over a month ago."

"When?" Sirius cried sounding offended.

"On the 8th of September." She answered impatiently. "Why does it matter?"

"Because you're our friend so we would have wished you happy birthday and gotten you a present." James said incredulously.

"Oh," she said oddly. "Well, maybe next year, then."

"Next year, are you joking? We're going down to the kitchens now and celebrating." Sirius said as he stood up from his chair.

"Now?" Melody asked, disbelievingly.

"Yep, up you get." James informed her cheerfully as he grabbed one of her arms as Sirius took hold the other

"What? No – let me go!" She cried, looking beseechingly at Peter and Remus who were following closely behind as they exited the common room. "I have homework to do!"

"You can do it tomorrow, today we're celebrating your birthday." Remus said firmly.

"Fine," Melody sighed resignedly, allowing the two boys to practically carry her down to the kitchens.

* * *

_13__th__ October_

"So did you read the books?" Melody asked Snape after he walked into the classroom.

"Yes, although I almost got caught with them by your Head of House." He replied testily. Melody just laughed in response making Snape scowl. "It's not funny!" He muttered snappishly which only made her laugh harder.

"Have you finished yet?" He asked petulantly after some time had passed.

"Okay, I'm done." Melody announced, still chuckling a bit.

"It wasn't that funny." He said mulishly.

"Maybe not for you but I was imagining her face if she had caught you. She gave me permission and was there when I borrowed them!" Melody sniggered with a huge grin on her face. Snape went a pasty white colour.

"I would've lost Slytherin over a hundred points." He cried.

"Probably," she said carelessly.

"You don't understand," Snape shouted at her. "My House never would've forgiven me."

"Why does it even matter? They're just House points."

"Maybe for your House but not in Slytherin."

"Why? I still don't get it." Melody cried impatiently.

"I am a half-blood in Slytherin! What do you think would happen if I lost us the amount that McGonagall would take off?!" Snape yelled back.

She shouted back at him, emphasising every word separately, "But what does that matter?"

"They're all purebloods, why do you think it matters?" Snape screamed back at her. They glared at each other for a couple of minutes before Melody relaxed.

"It's not fair, though. That they bully you just because of your parentage."

"It doesn't matter." Snape said flatly.

"Fine, if you say so." Melody replied disbelievingly. "Let's get started. You said you'd read the books, so what technique did you think would work for you?"

Snape looked relieved at the abrupt change of topic. "I think I prefer the magical extension method. It sounds easiest."

"Yes, that's the most similar method to mine." Melody agreed. "Shall we start?"

55


	5. Character Study 1 - Melody

**A/N: I was recently contemplating Melody's character and realised that she is coming across as really Mary Sue-like. There is a reason for her gifts (which will be explored in the series as a whole and will include other popular fandoms) but not many of her faults have been outlined or even included yet so I thought I'd rectify that.**

**Now some of this may be considered spoilers (in the sense that you will gain an understanding of a character outside of the story and before these traits are explored in the plot) so fair warning. Also, they will hopefully (if I'm a good enough author) be dealt with and resolved in the story.**

**There's also a poll on for which of Harry's Hogwarts years Melody should rejoin the story. To vote head to my fanfiction profile by clicking on my penname. The poll is at the top so just click and vote to have your say.**

* * *

_Temperament  
_One of the more obvious things you may have noticed regarding Melody is her inclination towards anger as an emotional response. This is definitely shown in her meeting-turned-confrontation with Dumbledore. Her quickness to anger also leads to an increased propensity towards violence, as shown in the second chapter with how quick she was to pull her want on Malfoy and the fact that she had her hand on her wand the moment he entered the compartment. She also does not forgive easily which, when combined with the previous statements, means that it can be difficult for her repair damaged relationships.  
This similarly shows her tendency to think the worst of people because she believes that if they have hurt her once, then they are likely to do so again. She operates on the idea that if you expect the worst then you are always pleasantly surprised when things go well. This comes from the extreme bullying she suffered as a younger child at the hands of the children at the school she attended.  
Furthermore, she also has a problem being patient with anyone she considers to be stupid or ignorant, which is going to make her time in the wizarding world especially hard when you consider who it is made up of (*cough*ignorant bigoted purebloods *cough*). This is shown in her letter to her parents when she says that she doesn't know enough about wizarding customs to help Peter. I don't think anyone picked up on it, given that I deliberately glossed over it as Melody, but she was only telling half the truth.  
She has only become friends with Peter because she pities him. She's being nice to him because she thinks that otherwise he'll be bullied (and she's right, remember Neville?). She doesn't actually want to invest the effort to explain the magical theory to him because to do that she would have to translate her immediate understanding of what is on the page to something Peter can understand, especially because she doesn't actually believe that it will work. Overall, she has a very low opinion of Peter Pettigrew's mental capability.  
Her dislike of people who are ignorant stems from her dislike of not knowing things and this is makes her very testy at this point in the story (see: her not knowing about half-bloods in Slytherin) because she's suddenly been introduced to a culture where she seriously knows absolutely nothing about the culture, beliefs and common knowledge. That's why she bought a lot of books from Diagon Alley and she has to be dragged out of the library every day. She's trying to lessen the gap between her and the magically-raised children.  
Basically Melody has a very abrasive personality which hasn't come out yet because she's still on her best behaviour at the moment so she doesn't overly offend anyone that she considers important.

* * *

_Arrogance  
_This is definitely a problem that will cause issues and it has already caused issues between Melody and Lily. Her arrogance comes from the way she was raised. She is more intelligent than her adoptive parents – and both she and they know it.

Amie responded by becoming apathetic and distant towards her and her behaviour, especially one her biological daughter came along. There's also the suggestion with Amie of some undealt with pre-natal depression regarding Elaina. Carmine reacted in a similar way, because neither of them knows how to connect to her.  
So if she has problems connecting with adults then how are children her own age going to react? Badly – very badly.  
Some of you may have noticed the difference her behaviour with her parents and the rest of the Marauders and this is because, for the first time in her life, she has a chance to make a first impression she can control and thus, the chance for her to make friends.  
Her inability to relate to other children will also result in her not being able to understand the things that they regard as important. The points system is already outdated for her because to her it doesn't matter and she doesn't get that the other kids place a great deal of important in the House Cup.  
This arrogance plus her intelligence causes her to fall into the same trap as Dumbledore: thinking she knows better than almost everyone else and, while this idea does have some degree of merit, it also means she doesn't take into account that she simply may not either have access to the information required or that, being muggle-raised, she may miss some nuances in decision-making that are not open to her because she is still almost entirely ignorant of the magical world.  
This can also cause the problem where she doesn't think through the consequences of her actions, or believes that there are no consequences, because she doesn't have all the knowledge required to show her why her actions are a bad idea; as per the decision to not tell Snape to be careful with the books from the library, although with that example she may simply have had a higher expectation of his reasoning ability than she should have expected with him being only eleven.

* * *

_Legilimency and Wandless Magic  
_I'm not going into this one much because I go into it in detail in the story later on. Just suffice to say that there is a reason she can perform Legilimency and why she has such control over her magic.

* * *

_Lying  
_For those of you who don't remember, here I am referring to her reaction when she tries to lie to Snape just outside the library about performing Legilimency on him. I haven't explained this one yet as well but know that there is also a reason for this. Another entirely separate one.

* * *

_Name  
_I've had many of my friends comment to me that they've noticed the link between _Doctor Who_'s River Song/Melody Pond and my Melody and quite a few of you may have noticed the same thing. All I have to say is: no, they are not the same person. Well done, though, for noticing the most obvious link in the world. *unimpressed face*

* * *

_Intelligence_  
Yes, I realise that Melody's intelligence is disproportionate to her age, even considering her supposed prodigy status. It is very easy to see and no, I'm not explaining why, however I will tell you that it's the same reason why she can perform Legilimency and, to some extent, wandless magic.

* * *

_Story Arc  
_You have all noticed (or at least, those on AO3), I'm sure, that this is a series. This story is basically the (extended) prologue to the overarching series.  
Yes, it will be multi-fandom.  
No, you will not have to read every single story in the series (even this one) to understand what's going on.  
Yes, it will probably take quite a while to complete the whole series.  
This story, however, should be done by the end of 2016 or, failing that, by the end 2017 (and yes, I know I sound similar to the new Sherlock season 4 announcement).  
After this story will probably be the rewrite of the original story that some of you may have read, called: _come away, O human child_, which I pulled down with the publication of this story.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed reading this or, if you didn't enjoy it, that you at the very least found it informative.

(Yeah, I know, it's really obvious how much I miss writing text analyses now that I no longer do high school English. So sue me.)

57


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